Welcome to 2026! Seems like forever since I have written about EPM. Since Oracle paused monthly updates (fingers crossed that we see something in February), I haven’t written my regular musings about new features and functionality. So, I started thinking about what we should be seeing in the coming year. I went through my notes from Kscope and AI World, reviewed information from others out there, and of course did what seemed like a logical exercise and consulted ChatGPT. Whether you like it or not, and I know a few people who most certainly do not like it, if you are not incorporating AI into your daily work, you will get left behind.
Here is what I think we will be seeing in Oracle EPM over the next year.
AI, and More AI
It is no secret that Oracle is all in on AI. Within EPM, it will be heavily marketed. I say “marketed” because I feel some features may be labeled as AI that are not necessarily using AI. I want to be wrong about this, but AI is as much a marketing tool as actual technology right now. Some EPM areas where it absolutely will continue to improve are in Advanced Predictions, IPM Insights, and Narrative Reporting. Advanced Predictions should see assisted driver selection, which will be helpful as it can be difficult to configure those selections. Insights should see enhancements to the GenAI explanations provided. Similarly, Narrative Reporting should see improvements to the GenAI responses.
Planning Agent
The Planning Agent will be a big leap forward in EPM usability. Being able to ask EPM questions like why did sales decrease and getting a natural language explanation will drive engagement with the data. Instead of users having to run a report or create an ad hoc to look at the data and drill into it for reasons, EPM will provide the information giving the user more time to make decisions from the data. One way to think of the Agent is as a guided FP&A assistant. Tell it what you want and it digs through the data to find it and explain it. However, the Agent is not an autonomous planner. It recommends, explains, and guides, but does not submit forecasts, override data, or bypass governance. A person is in control of what is done with the data. The Planning Agent can provide Prediction Generation, Prediction Explanation Assistance, Contextual Data Analysis Assistance, Root Cause Analysis Assistance, and What-if Scenario Modeling Assistance.
PCM
Allocation diagnostics (AI assisted) to provide explanations and pattern detection for unexpected cost behavior should be coming. From the Oracle roadmaps I have seen, PCM innovation seems focused on making existing models easier to understand.
Narrative Reporting
Expanding what I said earlier, GenAI should see big developments. Better narratives based on variances and trends, explanations for the variances, and consistency across periods. I think the workflow for packages will get improvements, and better parity between the Web and Office (e.g. Excel, Word, PowerPoint).
Predictive Cash Forecasting (PCF)
2025 was a big year for PCF, I think 2026 will be even bigger. Oracle learned a lot from customers and has been aggressively working on improving the product. I expect to see better transparency into drivers and model behavior, enhanced diagnostics for forecast gaps, and smoother integration with Planning.
Operational Modeling
I hesitated to include Operational Modeling in what we could see in 2026. It has been talked about for a while, and though I really hope it does come out, I do not want to get my hopes up.
Summary
There is most certainly a lot more coming to EPM over the next year than the few things that caught my attention. I did not touch on anything in Consolidations or Account Reconciliations, or all the other parts of EPM. And I could be way off on all of it. But generally speaking, 2026 should see significant improvements within the EPM ecosystem. We should see better connectivity between business processes. We should see better Predictions. We should see better explanations from Insights and Narrative Reporting. We should see easier access to the data. Importantly, we should see better integration between Planning, Insights, and Narrative Reporting, and with that a more connected experience.
And of course, AI will be a big part of it. I will end with this bit of wisdom from a friend who knows more about AI than I likely ever will: AI isn’t going to take your job. The person who knows how to use AI better than you is going to take your job.
As always, happy EPM’ng!
Full Disclosure: The above post was written by me. But I did use ChatGPT to check my work and offer suggestions on improvements. I rewrote a few paragraphs to provide clarity based on that feedback.
Random EPM Notes 