Good morning. AI is quickly turning into a board-level precedence, pulling CFOs to the middle of enterprise AI technique.
That was a takeaway from the primary Fortune Rising CFO webinar of the 12 months, held on Jan. 27 in partnership with Workday, throughout our dialogue with three finance leaders: Tiffany Buchanan, CFO of Dataminr; Dan Durn, CFO and EVP of finance, know-how, safety and operations at Adobe; and Zachary Wasserman, CFO at Huntington Bancshares.
At Dataminr, AI is a standing merchandise within the firm’s annual working plan and a think about each finances determination, Buchanan mentioned. She views AI adoption as non-negotiable throughout all capabilities, enabled by native capabilities in fashionable SaaS platforms and AI-powered instruments that are actually accessible to corporations of all sizes. That strategy positions the CFO as a strategic accomplice to the CEO, directing capital towards initiatives that drive development and effectivity, Buchanan mentioned.
Durn framed Adobe’s AI technique round growing “organizational velocity”—compressing the time from perception to motion in a data-rich surroundings. Embedding AI throughout operations permits groups to detect indicators quicker and reply extra successfully, he mentioned. However know-how alone is just not sufficient; success additionally depends upon tradition, steady studying, and leaders who deliver mental curiosity moderately than counting on static playbooks, Durn defined.
For Wasserman, AI adoption in a closely regulated financial institution requires balancing velocity with threat. With mannequin capabilities advancing quickly, even a brief delay can create a major aggressive drawback, he warned. Huntington has responded by constructing a generative AI threat framework, prioritizing use circumstances by threat stage, and requiring human oversight for higher-impact purposes, he mentioned.
These govt views underscore a broader shift now taking part in out throughout finance organizations: CFOs are transferring from AI experimentation to execution.
The information drawback beneath the AI push
Sommer Frazier, managing director of finance transformation at KPMG US, defined through the webinar that whereas most corporations have adopted AI in some type, many stay caught between pilot tasks and scaled deployment, she mentioned. Information high quality points, weak governance, infrastructure gaps, expertise shortages, and cybersecurity issues are among the many commonest obstacles, Frazier mentioned.
The problem is elevating finance’s function as a steward of enterprise knowledge. In response to a latest KPMG AI Pulse survey, 82% of executives now cite knowledge high quality as the highest barrier to AI success. Frazier mentioned finance leaders should assist set up requirements and governance frameworks, whereas enterprise groups retain day-to-day accountability for the info they generate and preserve.
Generative AI, as soon as a novelty, is already embedded in on a regular basis enterprise instruments, from productiveness software program to core monetary programs, she mentioned. Finance groups are utilizing it to summarize conferences, draft variance commentary, analyze contracts at scale, and determine pricing and payment-term patterns that may enhance monetary efficiency.
Trying forward, Frazier expects 2026 to mark a shift towards scaled AI agent orchestration, with staff more and more managing networks of AI brokers moderately than discrete processes. The end result, she mentioned, will likely be a reallocation of finance expertise towards higher-value evaluation and decision-making.
You possibly can study extra concerning the extra matters mentioned by watching the whole webinar right here.
Leaderboard
Fortune 500 Energy Strikes:
Luca Zaramella, CFO of Mondelez Worldwide (No. 125), is taking up the newly created function of chief working officer whereas persevering with to function CFO for now. Zaramella, finance chief since 2018, began the COO function efficient Feb. 1. The corporate is conducting a seek for a successor to the CFO place who will change him.
Each Friday morning, the weekly Fortune 500 Energy Strikes column tracks Fortune 500 firm C-suite shifts—see the newest version.
Extra notable CFO strikes:
Cassandra “Sandra” Harris, CFO of Genesco Inc. (NYSE: GCO) a footwear-focused specialty retailer, will step down efficient March 6 to pursue different alternatives. She is going to help with the transition and stay as a marketing consultant and principal accounting officer by the submitting of the corporate’s fiscal 2026 Kind 10-Okay on March 25. Mimi E. Vaughn, Genesco’s CEO, will assume the function of interim CFO. Vaughn beforehand served as Genesco’s finance chief from 2015 to 2019. The corporate has initiated an energetic seek for a everlasting CFO.
Invoice Carey was appointed CFO of OPSWAT, a cybersecurity supplier. Carey succeeds Simon Ho as finance chief. Ho, who has held the function since February 2020, will retire and stay out there in an advisory capability. Earlier than becoming a member of OPSWAT, Carey served as interim CFO and chief accounting officer at Couchbase. Throughout his tenure, he performed a key function within the firm’s profitable preliminary public providing in 2021.
Massive Deal
Gartner, Inc. analysis highlights 4 monetary methods CFOs ought to consider to drive environment friendly development amid ongoing financial volatility: paying suppliers sooner to spice up the underside line; investing in areas opponents can’t replicate; zero-based SG&A (promoting, basic, and administrative) redesign; and intentional debt deployment.
The findings are based mostly on a Gartner evaluation of greater than 1,500 corporations throughout the S&P 500, S&P 400, and S&P 600, which recognized 105 “efficient growth” corporations that delivered a 51% complete shareholder return premium from 2014 to 2024. Gartner defines environment friendly development as reaching above-industry income development, margin enlargement, and capital effectivity concurrently.
The complete Gartner CFO report is obtainable to Gartner purchasers. Non-clients can entry associated CFO insights and analysis summaries right here.
Going deeper
In an look on Fortune’s Titans and Disruptors of Business video podcast, Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla talked with Fortune Editor-in-Chief Alyson Shontell concerning the triumphs and challenges of navigating the pharmaceutical large by the pandemic and what’s shaping up afterward. Describing 2023 as a “very difficult period for me,” Bourla instructed Shontell that he believes “the winners in life are differentiated from the losers in life because the winners never fall. The winners always stand up again.”
Overheard
“What kind of leadership will we build to guide AI?”
—Carolyn Dewar, a senior accomplice at McKinsey & Firm’s Bay Space workplace and chief of the worldwide CEO Apply, writes in a Fortune opinion piece. Dewar is the co-author of A CEO for All Seasons: Mastering the Cycles of Management.
