Good morning. At the Fortune Emerging CFO virtual event in partnership with Workday on Thursday, executives discussed how AI is reshaping finance and the evolving responsibilities of CFOs.
James Glover, director and head of financial transformation AI at Deloitte, emphasized that AI must align with a company’s core strategy. CFOs must first define their goal (efficiency, control, effectiveness, or engagement) and then target the financial areas that best support that goal. Companies that deploy AI use case at a time, without a broader plan, struggle to capture significant business value, Glover said.
CFOs are also evaluating agentic AI platforms to improve efficiency. “But you actually have to train your people to use it, otherwise they’re going to treat it sort of like a Google search,” Glover commented. This means that AI incentivizing skills are crucial. Implementations of these platforms often take six to 12 months. He advised companies to introduce simple AI productivity tools early on to increase their comfort when planning more ambitious initiatives, and to implement governance and compliance guidance in parallel.
CFOs typically ask Deloitte three questions: What is the ROI of AI? Where to start? And should they buy or build? Early adopters are starting to see “green shoots” of return on investment, Glover said.
Develop use cases for AI
A panel of CFOs shared their experiences, highlighting the impact of AI on accuracy, forecasting, productivity, and the importance of iterative learning and cross-functional collaboration.
Craig Mestel, CFO of Webflow, a website platform for marketing, design and development teams, said his finance team spends a lot of time answering common policy questions. Webflow now uses large language model applications to automate these queries, freeing up its team for higher-value work. The company has also set up access to its data by chat. “The non-technical analysts on my team can use natural language to talk with the data and start getting insights,” Mestel said.
He added that Webflow’s CEO has imposed clear expectations around the use of AI. “We partnered with HR to create a framework related to performance reviews,” Mestel said.
Thadd Stricker, chief financial officer of INRIX, which specializes in transportation analytics and location-based data services, said AI is transforming the business in two major ways. It analyzes massive mobility data sets (over 50 petabytes (a unit of digital storage equal to one quadrillion bytes) and 45 billion daily data points), allowing customers to derive actionable insights. And in finance, AI tools have significantly improved the accuracy of reporting and forecasting, including ARR, achieving up to 95% accuracy with greater transparency and less manual entry. He expects these capabilities to grow as similar tools are integrated into platforms like Workday.
Michelle Cheung, CFO and COO of Greenlight, a subscription fintech focused on family finance and safety, said AI strengthens risk management by analyzing transaction data, streamlines operations by automating contract review, powers educational content in the app, and improves collaboration by reducing work in silos. The company also organizes hackathons for a better understanding of AI, Cheung said.
‘Don’t give up’
CFOs noted that not all AI use cases are successful, emphasizing the importance of maintaining human oversight in the process. For example, Mestel said early experiments using ChatGPT as a junior analyst were unsuccessful. “He’s not ready for this yet; he’s not good at math,” he said. His team also struggled to automate gap analysis due to inconsistent results, but after iterations and testing, they achieved greater reliability and impact.
“The point I would like to share with CFOs is: If you fail the first time, it’s okay,” Mestel said. “Don’t give up, keep going.”
Have a good weekend.
Sheryl Estrada
sheryl.estrada@fortune.com
Ranking
Fortune 500 Power Moves
Hugh F. Johnstonsenior executive vice president and chief financial officer of The Walt Disney Company (No. 46), saw his mandate extended until January 31, 2029, according to a SEC Filing. Johnston, a longtime PepsiCo executive, initially joined Disney on December 4, 2023 for a term ending December 31, 2026. The company raised its long-term annual stock award target to $16.5 million, while its base salary and bonus targets remain unchanged.
Brody Merrill has been named chief financial officer of Mutual of Omaha (No. 299), effective December 1. Merrill most recently served as chief financial officer and treasurer of American National Group. With over 24 years of financial leadership in the insurance, technology and asset management industries, he has experience in capital management, risk monitoring and business performance optimization. Merrill is a veteran of the United States Marine Corps.
Every Friday morning, the weekly Fortune 500 Power Moves column follows leadership changes at Fortune 500 companies:see the most recent edition.
More notable moves this week:
Steve Fieler has been named CFO of Waymo, an autonomous ride-sharing company. Fieler brings nearly 30 years of financial experience to Waymo, an Alphabet company. Most recently, he was a key member of the CFO leadership team at Google, where he served as Vice President of Planning, BizOps, Investments and Investor Relations. He also served as corporate finance manager for Google’s platforms and ecosystems unit, responsible for products including Android and Chrome. Before joining Google, Fieler was CFO at HP.
Michael Nofi has been named chief financial officer of Edgewise Therapeutics, Inc. (Nasdaq: EWTX), a biopharmaceutical company specializing in muscle diseases, effective November 10. Nofi joins Edgewise after serving as Chief Accounting Officer (CAO) at SpringWorks Therapeutics, Inc. He will succeed Edgewise CFO R. Michael Carruthers, who is retiring. Nofi brings over 30 years of leadership experience. Prior to joining Edgewise, he served as CAO of SpringWorks Therapeutics. Prior to that, Nofi was CAO and Vice President of Global Accounting and Corporate FP&A at The Nature’s Bounty Co.
James G. Mackey has been promoted to Chief Financial Officer of BankUnited, Inc. (NYSE: BKU), effective November 10. Mackey was hired on July 23 and served as senior executive vice president of finance from August 15 to November 10. Leslie N. Lunak, who has served as the company’s chief financial officer since 2013, will remain an executive advisor until January 2026.
Martin Cadoni has been named CFO of DeepL, a global AI product and research company. Cadoni brings over 15 years of international leadership experience in finance and technology. He joins DeepL from Klarna, where he held senior management roles including head of strategic finance and investor relations, and led the divestiture of Klarna Checkout. Cadoni also held financial leadership positions at HSBC and GE.
Big deal
AuditBoard has published the findings of its Future Focus Report 2026. The internal audit profession operates in an environment of hypervolatility characterized by accelerated and interconnected risks. The profession faces three converging forces: persistently limited resources, the rise of AI, and a demand for role redefinition.
For example, only 28% of executives express confidence in their teams’ ability to effectively audit AI-related risks, and 63% of organizations have yet to define a risk appetite or formal governance framework for the use of AI, leaving internal auditors with little oversight structure, according to the report.
The results are based on a survey of 213 global internal audit executives.
Go deeper
Here are four Fortune weekend reads:
“Ford CEO says he has 5,000 vacant mechanic jobs with 6-figure salaries due to shortage of skilled manual workers: ‘We are in trouble in our country‘” by Marco Quiroz-Gutierrez
“After Elon Musk’s Boring Co. was cited for serious safety violations, the Nevada governor’s office took action. Then someone deleted the evidence of that meeting.” by Jessica Mathews and Leo Schwartz
“OnlyFans CEO Won’t Tolerate ‘This Sleazy Middle Management Layer’ and Refuses to Hire Them” by Jim Edwards
“The rise of Yann LeCun, the 65-year-old NYU professor who plans to leave Mark Zuckerberg’s highly paid team at Meta to launch his own AI startup” by Dave Smith
Heard
“Replacing entry-level workers with AI is not an option unless businesses and society are prepared to accept, as the older generation retires, that AI agents will be the only ones in these crucial professions. Few would be content with this future.”
—Steve Hasker, president and CEO of Thomson Reuters, writes in a Fortune opinion article.
