mlsanityData to 14 Oct 2026

Can LLM Agents Be CFOs? Benchmarking Long-Horizon Resource Allocation in an Uncertain Enterprise Environment

arXiv 2603.23638 ↗First posted 24 Mar 2026cs.AIcited by 4

On the map: LLM agents and tool use → Financial trading and forecasting agents

Abstract (arXiv)

Large language model (LLM) agents are increasingly tested on complex tasks, but their ability to allocate scarce resources over long horizons remains unclear. Unlike reactive tasks with immediate feedback, this setting requires agents to make binding commitments under partial observability, delayed consequences, hard resource budgets, and shifting dynamics. We introduce EnterpriseArena, a 132-month CFO simulator that evaluates long-horizon resource allocation under uncertainty in a FinTech lending firm. Agents must manage liquidity, close books, gather costly signals, and request equity or debt financing across changing macroeconomic regimes. The simulator is built from transformed firm-level financial data, anonymized business documents, decade-scale macroeconomic and industry signals, and expert-validated operating rules. Experiments across 23 LLMs and four agent frameworks show that current agents remain far from robust: only 15.4% of trials survive the full horizon, larger models do not reliably outperform smaller ones, and failures cascade across observation, action timing, and capital sizing. These findings establish long-horizon resource allocation under uncertainty as a distinct capability gap for LLM agents.

Key facts. Cited by 4 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026). Placed in Financial trading and forecasting agents, one of 16 directions in LLM agents and tool use. Builds on 20 of its 53 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 24 Mar 2026.

Builds on

20 of 53 references.

Closest ancestors · 2

Same direction, newest first

  1. 2025StockBench: Can LLM Agents Trade Stocks Profitably In Real-world Markets?2 Oct
  2. 2024INVESTORBENCH: A Benchmark for Financial Decision-Making Tasks with LLM-based Agent24 Dec

Other references · 18

  1. 2024The Llama 3 Herd of Modelscited by 14,715
  2. 2023A Survey on Evaluation of Large Language Modelscited by 1,242
  3. 2020ALFWorld: Aligning Text and Embodied Environments for Interactive Learningcited by 1,205
  4. 2024TheAgentCompany: Benchmarking LLM Agents on Consequential Real World Taskscited by 326
  5. 2025NVIDIA Nemotron Nano 2: An Accurate and Efficient Hybrid Mamba-Transformer Reasoning Modelcited by 108
  6. 2025SafeArena: Evaluating the Safety of Autonomous Web Agentscited by 102
  7. 2025LifelongAgentBench: Evaluating LLM Agents as Lifelong Learnerscited by 78
  8. 2025Finance Agent Benchmark: Benchmarking LLMs on Real-world Financial Research Taskscited by 65
  9. 2026AMA-Bench: Evaluating Long-Horizon Memory for Agentic Applicationscited by 53
  10. 2026FeatureBench: Benchmarking Agentic Coding for Complex Feature Developmentcited by 34
  11. 2025MCP-AgentBench: Evaluating Real-World Language Agent Performance with MCP-Mediated Toolscited by 32
  12. 2025AI-Trader: Benchmarking Autonomous Agents in Real-Time Financial Marketscited by 25
6 more
  1. 2024Tur[k]ingBench: A Challenge Benchmark for Web Agentscited by 18
  2. 2025Can LLMs Help You at Work? A Sandbox for Evaluating LLM Agents in Enterprise Environmentscited by 17
  3. 2025Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning for Resources Allocation Optimization: A Surveycited by 14
  4. 2025FinAuditing: A Financial Taxonomy-Structured Multi-Document Benchmark for Evaluating LLMscited by 14
  5. 2025FinGAIA: A Chinese Benchmark for AI Agents in Real-World Financial Domaincited by 9
  6. 2025RKEFino1: A Regulation Knowledge-Enhanced Large Language Modelcited by 1

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Cited by year (2026 to 14 Oct)

Citing papers per year: 2026: 4.

4 papers.

Similar, not cited

Close in wording, no citation either way

  1. 2025Standard Benchmarks Fail -- Auditing LLM Agents in Finance Must Prioritize Risk
  2. 2026Agentic Trading: When LLM Agents Meet Financial Markets
  3. 2026Can LLMs Be CEOs? Benchmarking Strategic Resource Reallocation with Multi-Role Agent Simulation
  4. 2026CoffeeBench: Benchmarking Long-Horizon LLM Agents in Heterogeneous Multi-Agent Economies
  5. 2026Financial Fragility in Societies of LLM Agents: Coordination Failures and Stabilizing Mechanisms
  6. 2026Why Better Models Can Create Riskier Systems: Evidence from LLM Agents in Financial Markets
  7. 2024FinCon: A Synthesized LLM Multi-Agent System with Conceptual Verbal Reinforcement for Enhanced Financial Decision Making
  8. 2026EnterpriseBench: Benchmarking LLM Agents on Enterprise-Level Strategic Reasoning and Decision-Making