Good morning. Intuit’s momentum is being pushed by a sturdy technique, deep investments in AI, and now a brand new partnership with OpenAI.
The fintech firm—maker of TurboTax, Credit score Karma, and QuickBooks—this week introduced a brand new multiyear contract, price over $100 million, with OpenAI. The partnership brings Intuit’s platform capabilities straight into ChatGPT. “Hundreds of millions of people are engaging with large language models every week,” Sandeep Aujla, EVP and CFO at Intuit (No. 258 on the Fortune 500), instructed me. The collaboration permits Intuit to satisfy prospects the place they’re, Aujla stated. By constructing experiences inside OpenAI’s platform, Intuit goals to assist folks obtain extra insightful, personalised, and actionable monetary recommendation—proper within the second and context they want it.
Take TurboTax, for instance. By way of the brand new integration, prospects can ask ChatGPT tax-related questions, reminiscent of the way to entry their refund early to cowl a significant expense. They’ll obtain responses tailor-made to their monetary scenario. “With the depth of our data, we can connect users to the right solutions, whether it’s filing early or accessing customized loan options via Credit Karma,” Aujla defined.
This deeply personalised strategy isn’t solely about serving present prospects but in addition about attracting new ones to Intuit’s platform. “We have 100 million customers on our platform; OpenAI has about 800 million weekly active users,” Aujla stated. “Our teams are working together, thinking about what these experiences could look like.”
In a really tangible method, it’s additionally about powering prosperity for folks, Aujla stated. “We can give them authentic, tangible advice based on their unique situation.”
Information privateness and belief stay core pillars of the technique, he emphasised. “It’s the customer’s data, and it remains on our platform,” he added. “Our standards for stewardship haven’t changed one bit.”
In the case of measuring the success of the OpenAI partnership, Intuit’s strategy is constant: engagement, deeper relationships, and new buyer progress stay key metrics. “This is simply a new door into the Intuit platform,” Aujla stated.
A longtime wager on AI continues to form Intuit’s future
Intuit reported its Q1 2026 earnings on Thursday, with income reaching $3.9 billion—up 18% year-over-year and beating analyst expectations. It’s all about executing a constant technique, Aujla stated. Platform adoption, particularly for AI-powered, done-for-you experiences like TurboTax Dwell Assisted, continues to resonate, with assisted TurboTax revenues at 51%. Intuit’s “money offerings” are additionally thriving, together with invoice pay, and midmarket gross sales are robust, with associated revenues up 40%.
Aujla cites “early green shoots” in Mailchimp’s mid-market enlargement, pushed by new product launches, a scaled-up salesforce, and a renewed advertising and marketing push. The corporate is focusing on double-digit progress by year-end, with optimism heading into spring, he stated.
Reflecting on how Intuit has navigated a 12 months of financial uncertainty, Aujla credit the corporate’s “culture of focusing on what matters most” and a method that’s each rigorous and forward-looking. The corporate’s working system pushes management to debate what drives buyer prosperity—not simply over the following three years, however over the following decade, he stated.
“We declared AI as the key to our strategy back in 2018—way before other people started talking about AI and it became fashionable,” Aujla stated. This long-term imaginative and prescient helps Intuit stay indispensable, whatever the exterior local weather, he stated. “We’re not a nice-to-have. We’re a must-have for both businesses and consumers,” Aujla stated.
Trying towards 2026, Aujla’s prime precedence helps 100 million prospects “make the best financial decisions based on their unique positions.” Regardless of blended narratives throughout the broader financial system, Intuit’s information suggests stability—and the corporate stays laser-focused on delivering worth and establishing prospects for the absolute best 12 months forward, he stated.
Leaderboard
Fortune 500 Energy Strikes
—Mark Mason will transition out of the CFO function at Citigroup (No. 21) in March 2026. Mason will develop into govt vice chair and senior govt advisor to the chair and CEO Jane Fraser, with accountability for advising on strategic initiatives, together with making ready the agency for Investor Day. Mason joined Citi in 2001 and have become CFO in 2019. He intends to pursue his management aspirations outdoors of Citi by the tip of 2026. Gonzalo Luchetti will succeed Mason as CFO following the transition interval. Luchetti has served as Citi’s Head of U.S. Private Banking since 2021 and joined the corporate in 2006.
—Zac Coughlin was appointed CFO of Sirius XM Holdings Inc. (No. 448), efficient Jan. 1, 2026. Coughlin will succeed Tom Barry, who’s stepping down as CFO. Coughlin presently serves as CFO of PVH Corp. He joined the corporate from DFS Group Restricted, a subsidiary of LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton Group, the place he served as group CFO and chief working officer. Earlier than becoming a member of DFS, Coughlin was CFO at Converse, Inc., a division of Nike, Inc. He began his profession with Ford Motor Firm, the place he held a number of international monetary management roles.
Each Friday morning, the weekly Fortune 500 Energy Strikes column tracks Fortune 500 firm C-suite shifts—see the latest version.
Extra notable strikes this week:
Cor van den Berg was appointed CFO of Sunsweet Growers Inc., a world chief in dried fruit and beverage classes. He joins Sunsweet with greater than 25 years of monetary management expertise. Most just lately, van den Berg served as CFO at Darigold (Cooperative). Earlier than that, he held CFO and different key finance and technique positions at Mars, Inc. and Metropolis of Hope.
Nancy Erba was appointed CFO of Energy Integrations (Nasdaq: POWI), a semiconductor firm, efficient Jan. 5, 2026. Erba most just lately served as CFO at Infinera Company, a provider of optical networking options, from 2019 by the corporate’s acquisition by Nokia earlier this 12 months. Earlier than that, she was CFO at Immersion Company. Earlier, Erba held a succession of more and more senior management positions at Seagate Expertise.
Ravi Thanawala, CFO and EVP, Worldwide at Papa John’s Worldwide, Inc. (Nasdaq: PZZA), has been promoted to CFO and President, North America, efficient instantly. The corporate’s worldwide enterprise will now be led by Chris Lyn-Sue. Thanawala joined Papa John’s as CFO in 2023 and was promoted to CFO and EVP, Worldwide in 2024. He additionally served as the corporate’s interim CEO from March to August 2024.
Scott Lipman was promoted to CFO of Avenzo Therapeutics, Inc., a clinical-stage biotechnology firm. He’ll proceed to function the corporate’s chief enterprise officer. Lipman succeeds Paolo Tombesi, who has retired from his CFO function. Lipman joined Avenzo in March 2023 as SVP of company growth and was promoted to chief enterprise officer in November 2024. Beforehand, he was on the management group at Turning Level Therapeutics, the place he performed a key function in its acquisition by Bristol Myers Squibb.
Jeremy Evans was promoted to govt vice chairman and CFO of Helios Applied sciences, Inc. (NYSE: HLIO), a supplier of movement and digital controls expertise. Evans succeeds Michael Connaway, who has left the corporate after becoming a member of Helios on Oct. 13, 2025. The corporate acknowledged Connaway’s departure isn’t associated to any disagreement. Evans joined Helios on Jan. 24, 2024, and was promoted to chief accounting officer on Sept. 1, 2025. Earlier than becoming a member of Helios, he amassed 25 years of management expertise with Tech Information, now TD SYNNEX Company.
Bryan Kyle was appointed CFO of Conga, a income lifecycle administration platform supplier. Kyle brings over 25 years of monetary management expertise throughout each personal and publicly traded expertise corporations. Together with executing company finance methods at Conga, he’ll oversee the monetary integration of the deliberate PROS B2B acquisition.
Massive Deal
Deloitte’s “2026 M&A Trends Survey: A Tale of Two Markets” affords an early preview forward of the total report. As 2025 attracts to a detailed, the survey highlights a transparent break up within the M&A panorama: deal exercise is being pushed by fewer however bigger transactions. Third-quarter deal worth reached $598 billion—the best in practically 4 years—whereas general deal quantity remained comparatively flat.
The findings are primarily based on preliminary evaluation from greater than 1,500 company and personal fairness (PE) dealmakers.
Optimism seems to be returning. One key discovering is that many dealmakers forecast a spike in each deal quantity and worth. Ninety p.c of PE respondents and 80% of company respondents anticipate their organizations to do extra offers in 2026. Equally, when requested about anticipated mixture deal worth over the following 12 months, 87% of PE respondents and 81% of company respondents anticipate will increase as effectively.
Going deeper
Listed here are 4 Fortune weekend reads:
Overheard
“The evidence is clear: the primary opportunity AI provides is not to replace people, but to reallocate their focus.”
—Frank Nagle, a analysis scientist on the MIT Initiative on the Digital Financial system and the chief economist on the Linux Basis, states in a Fortune opinion piece. “Junior employees are typically innovative and technically adept, and in tune with a new generation of customers,” Nagle writes. “More importantly, they become tomorrow’s managers and leaders. Cutting them off not only silences crucial perspectives but also creates a long-term deficit in institutional knowledge.”
