Will AI Replace Finance Jobs in Belgium? Here’s What to Do in 2025

Belgium's finance jobs are shifting fast: an ING study estimates 65% of the workforce - roughly 3.3 million Belgians - will be “greatly impacted” by AI, with about 31% in high‑exposure, high‑complementarity roles likely to gain and 34% in roles where tasks may be automated; read the ING study on AI's impact on the Belgian labour market (Agoria) ING study on AI's impact on the Belgian labour market (Agoria).

In lending, EY highlights how embedded finance plus AI is already changing credit scoring, underwriting and customer experience in Belgian banks - a reminder that technical fluency will be as important as domain knowledge: see EY Belgium's analysis of embedded finance and AI in lending EY Belgium: embedded finance and AI in lending.

PwC's 2025 barometer also shows AI can raise worker value (and wages) when paired with new skills, so practical reskilling matters - explore targeted upskilling like the AI Essentials for Work bootcamp from Nucamp AI Essentials for Work bootcamp - Nucamp registration to stay competitive in 2025.

“AI has the potential to radically transform the labour market, affecting workers of all skill levels in a wide variety of companies and sectors.”

How AI is being used in Belgian finance today is visible first and foremost in accounts payable and receivable: AI-powered invoice capture and Intelligent Document Processing (IDP) now read PDFs, scans, EDI and e‑invoices to extract fields, match POs and auto‑enrich accounting data so Belgian AP teams can push far more invoices through straight‑through processing; see Serrala's AI‑powered invoice capture for touchless receipt and ERP integration Serrala AI-powered invoice capture for touchless receipt and ERP integration.

On the receivables side, predictive analytics and machine learning improve collection prioritisation, cash application and email triage - summarised in Forrester's look at AR use cases for 2025 Forrester 2025 accounts receivable AI use-cases report - helping Belgian treasuries reduce DSO and forecast cash more accurately.

Regional vendors and platforms such as Cevinio and Esker add multilingual, multi‑ERP connectivity, automated compliance checks for e‑invoicing mandates, supplier portals and dashboards so finance teams in Belgium can move from firefighting to vendor relationship work; the result is often invoices flowing into ERPs with minimal human clicks and faster, audit‑ready control Cevinio accounts payable invoice automation and efficiency.

“The automation has improved our processes by streamlining them. Now we're able to identify the trend and the lifecycle of an invoice.” - Cassie Cambridge, Director of Accounts Payable, SRS Distribution

In Belgium the clearest short‑term casualties are the routine, rule‑based finance tasks that AI can reliably automate: retail banking customer‑service queries and standard execution work in back‑office functions, manual AML alert triage and other high‑volume monitoring jobs - areas Huxley flags as most exposed to disruption in banking and finance Huxley analysis of banking and finance disruption due to AI.

The EY European AI Barometer captures how real this anxiety feels in Belgium, with 74% of employees fearing job losses and many reporting scant AI training at their firms EY European AI Barometer: employee views on AI in Belgium (2024).

Broader studies also warn that even highly skilled finance occupations can be vulnerable as models take on analytic and decision‑support tasks, so the risk map ranges from frontline tellers and processing roles up to some specialist analytics jobs that lack distinct human judgement Euronews report on OECD analysis of AI risk to skilled occupations.

The practical takeaway: roles that revolve around predictable inputs and mass processing are most at risk, while exception‑handling, regulatory judgement and relationship work remain the hardest to fully automate - imagine an inbox where only the messy, ambiguous cases land on a human desk.

“We can use a real life example for this, imagine there's a stock crash – no matter how intelligent the machine, it cannot account for random anomalies. It's because of this that the human element will always be valuable.”

Belgium's finance roles that are most resilient - and in many cases growing - are those that sit at the intersection of digital skills, green transition and cross‑border investment: think digital finance (data engineers, analytics and ERP integration) powered by the Recovery and Resilience Plan's digital push (27% digital tagging and €395M for digital/STEM education), sustainability and project‑finance specialists backing decarbonisation and offshore energy projects (51% of RRP funds support climate objectives and a EUR 100M loan for an offshore energy hub), and corporate/transaction teams that manage the surge in manufacturing, logistics and FDI deals (210 FDI projects in 2024 creating 5,392 jobs per EY).

Roles in reskilling, internal controls and governance also rise in importance given the plan's €475M for upskilling and tighter public‑spending reviews, while ESG reporting, green‑asset valuation and climate risk finance become must‑have capabilities as public and private flows align with climate objectives.

Picture a finance team building the cash model for a floating solar demonstrator in the North Sea - that blend of technical modelling, regulatory know‑how and sustainability fluency is precisely where Belgian demand is headed (see Belgium's Recovery and Resilience Plan and EY's Belgian Attractiveness Survey 2025 for the numbers and drivers).

Macro signals for Belgium in 2024–25 point to a cautious backdrop but clear pockets of demand: PwC's projections show a subdued eurozone with GDP growth around 0.8–0.9% in 2025, tightening the financing and M&A backdrop that Belgian deal teams must navigate (PwC global projections for eurozone GDP growth and outlook), yet sectors that lean on digital and data - especially advertising and media - are expanding (Belgium's E&M market reached €15.675 billion in 2024 and internet advertising is the fastest-growing slice with a 7.3% CAGR to 2029), creating demand for digital finance, analytics and ad‑revenue modelling skills (PwC analysis of Belgium entertainment & media and digital advertising trends).

At the same time PwC's 2025 AI Jobs Barometer signals that AI is reshaping pay and skills rapidly - AI skills now carry a steep wage premium and employer demand for reskilling is accelerating - so Belgian finance professionals facing slower overall growth can still win higher-value roles by pairing domain expertise with AI fluency (PwC AI Jobs Barometer 2025 on AI skills and labour market effects).

Picture a treasury desk in Antwerp that spends less time reconciling routine invoices and more time modelling cross‑border cash for a renewable project - that shift captures the “so what?” for Belgian finance: growth won't be broad, but it will be concentrated, digital and skill‑intensive.

“AI is making workers more valuable, productive, and able to command higher wage premiums, with job numbers rising even in the most easily automated roles.”

Belgian finance professionals aiming to stay valuable in 2025 must blend practical AI literacy with hands‑on digital finance abilities and regulatory savvy: basic AI understanding and responsible oversight (aligned with the EU AI Act) should sit alongside data skills - cleaning, SQL-friendly reporting and ERP integration - plus familiarity with embedded‑finance flows, instant payments and new rules such as DORA/MiCA/FiDA; the Digital Finance Summit 2025 outlines these industry shifts and networking routes for practitioners Digital Finance Summit 2025: industry shifts and networking for finance practitioners.

Take advantage of Belgium's funding and learning ecosystem - RRF funds, Digibank and the Digital Belgium Skills Fund - to access micro‑credentials and short executive modules that employers prize (Belgium funding for digital upskilling: RRF, Digibank and Digital Belgium Skills Fund).

Wallonia's training voucher scheme shows how far a small investment goes: a EUR 30 voucher buys one hour of approved AI training, turning inexpensive minutes of focused learning into outsized workplace leverage (Wallonia training vouchers for AI: EUR 30 per hour scheme).

Communication, change management and customer‑facing judgement - skills that explain model outputs and manage exceptions - remain the human premium in every resilient finance career.

Belgian employers should treat AI adoption as a coordinated people‑process‑platform change: hire for data fluency (data engineers, ERP integrators and AI‑aware controllers), create cross‑functional AI squads that pair finance domain experts with data owners, and fund short pilots that prove ROI before scaling - aligning every use case to clear business outcomes and strong data governance so projects don't become costly “black boxes.” National and regional programs offer support for this shift (see the Belgium national AI strategy and funding overview Belgium national AI strategy and funding overview - EU AI Watch), while finance leaders must lock governance, quality and oversight into the rollout plan and tie AI work to measurable KPIs and change management (data readiness and governance are front‑and‑centre in Grant Thornton's finance AI governance playbook Grant Thornton playbook: supercharging finance operations with AI).

Practically, adopt phased deployments (90‑day pilots, shadow‑mode validation), mandate owner/steward roles for datasets and models, and prioritise high‑impact automations (PO/invoice matching and treasury forecasting) that PwC highlights can cut cycle times dramatically - a vivid win that turns sceptics into sponsors (PwC: AI agents and the new finance operating model).

“With the right strategy, CFOs can create substantial benefits by deploying emerging technologies such as AI.”

Practical 2025 checklist for Belgian finance professionals: start by documenting a clear baseline and business objectives so every AI experiment ties to measurable outcomes (Devoteam's ROI framework explains why strategic alignment and a pre‑deployment baseline are essential Devoteam ROI framework for measuring AI ROI); prioritise high‑impact, low‑risk use cases - invoice capture, cash application and treasury forecasting - then run focused pilots (3–6 months) that prove value before scaling; lock data quality, model stewardship and EU‑aligned governance into every rollout so projects don't become

black boxes

; track a small set of KPIs (adoption, time saved, error rate, cost per transaction and business‑value metrics) on a central dashboard and use tools that map task‑level automation potential to workforce plans (for example, Gloat Signal's planner for identifying redeployment and reskilling paths Gloat Signal generative AI ROI and workforce planning tool); invest in short, funded micro‑credentials and shadow‑mode validation to get managers comfortable, then formalise a feedback loop that turns early wins into repeatable processes.

Imagine a week‑one dashboard that shows invoices auto‑matched and hours freed for strategic work - the visible win that builds momentum across BE finance teams.

Belgian finance teams face a tight regulatory squeeze: GDPR duties (and an active Data Protection Authority) sit alongside heavy AML/KYC obligations and growing supervisory scrutiny, so routine automation projects can suddenly become compliance headaches if data bases, transfers or retention policies aren't bullet‑proof; the practical clash - data minimisation versus multi‑year AML retention and STR reporting - is settled in day‑to‑day operations by relying on Article 6(1)(c) for AML processing and by documenting lawful bases and retention rationale (see GDPR vs AML compliance challenges guidance GDPR vs AML: Compliance Challenges - guidance on reconciling GDPR and AML).

Belgian rules also mandate DPOs for large or high‑risk processing, require DPIAs for high‑risk AI/analytics and expose firms to large fines and audits if controls slip (Belgian law and DPA reforms are summarised by DLA Piper Data protection in Belgium - DLA Piper summary of Belgian data protection law).

Manage the risk by embedding privacy-by-design into AP/AR and KYC pilots (pseudonymisation, encryption, strict access lists), running transfer impact assessments and SCCs for non‑EEA flows, keeping clear STR/retention workflows aligned with AML law, and equipping a visible model steward/DPO to answer regulator queries - the “so what?”: a single, well‑documented pilot that proves you can reconcile AML necessity with GDPR safeguards will turn regulatory exposure into a competitive trust advantage.

Practical roadmap: treat 2025 as a pivot from data entry to strategic partnership - embrace AI as an efficiency multiplier, then redeploy saved capacity into ESG, forecasting and advisory work where Belgian demand is rising; Robert Walters' 2025 hiring insights note that automation will augment roles and push employers to prize analytical mindset and business acumen, while temporary and agile hiring will smooth the transition Robert Walters 2025 accounting and finance hiring trends in Belgium.

Close the skills gap fast by combining short, funded reskilling with on‑the‑job pilots (the Cedefop forecast emphasises growing demand for high‑level qualifications to 2025), and pursue co‑investment models so training is affordable and aligned with business needs Cedefop Belgium skills forecasts to 2025 report.

For immediate practical upskilling, consider focused programs like Nucamp's AI Essentials for Work to learn promptcraft, tool use and job‑based AI skills in 15 weeks and convert theory into visible wins that hiring managers notice AI Essentials for Work bootcamp - Nucamp registration; the “so what?” is simple: a short, strategic investment in AI and ESG fluency turns exposure risk into upward mobility across Belgian finance careers.

“This automation will lead to increased efficiency and accuracy, allowing professionals to focus on more complex and strategic activities.”