Good morning. AI is quickly becoming a priority at the boardroom level, placing CFOs at the center of the company’s AI strategy.
That’s what emerged from the first Fortune Emerging CFO webinar of the year, hosted on January 27 in partnership with Workday, during our discussion with three finance executives: Tiffany Buchanan, CFO of Dataminr; Dan Durn, CFO and Executive Vice President of Finance, Technology, Security and Operations at Adobe; and Zachary Wasserman, CFO of Huntington Bank Shares.
At Dataminr, AI is an ongoing part of the company’s annual operating plan and a factor in every budget decision, Buchanan said. She views AI adoption as non-negotiable across all functions, enabled by the native capabilities of modern SaaS platforms and AI-driven tools that are now accessible to businesses of all sizes. This approach positions the CFO as a strategic partner to the CEO, directing capital toward initiatives that drive growth and efficiency, Buchanan said.
Durn defined Adobe’s AI strategy around increasing “organizational speed,” reducing the time from understanding to action in a data-rich environment. Integrating AI into operations allows teams to detect signals more quickly and respond to them more effectively, he said. But technology alone is not enough; Success also depends on culture, continuous learning and leaders who demonstrate intellectual curiosity rather than relying on static playbooks, Durn explained.
For Wasserman, adopting AI in a heavily regulated bank requires striking a balance between speed and risk. With model capabilities rapidly evolving, even a short delay can create a significant competitive disadvantage, he warned. Huntington responded by creating a generative risk framework for AI, prioritizing use cases by risk level and requiring human oversight for higher-impact applications, he said.
These executive insights highlight a broader shift currently taking place in finance organizations: CFOs are moving from experimenting with AI to executing.
The data problem driven by AI
Sommer Frazier, Managing Director of Financial Transformation at KPMG US, explained during the webinar that while most companies have adopted AI in one form or another, many remain stuck between pilot projects and full-scale deployment, she said. Data quality issues, weak governance, infrastructure gaps, talent shortages and cybersecurity concerns are among the most common obstacles, Frazier said.
The challenge is to elevate finance’s role as steward of enterprise data. According to a recent KPMG report AI Pulse survey82% of executives now cite data quality as the biggest barrier to AI success. Frazier said finance leaders must help establish standards and governance frameworks, while business teams remain accountable on a daily basis for the data they generate and maintain.
Generative AI, once a novelty, is already integrated into everyday business tools, from productivity software to basic financial systems, she said. Finance teams use it to summarize meetings, write comments on variances, analyze contracts at scale, and identify pricing models and payment terms that can improve financial performance.
Looking ahead, Frazier expects 2026 to mark a shift toward large-scale orchestration of AI agents, with employees increasingly managing networks of AI agents rather than discrete processes. The result, she said, will be a reallocation of financial talent toward higher-value analysis and decision-making.
You can learn about additional topics covered by watch the full webinar here.
Sheryl Estrada
sheryl.estrada@fortune.com
Ranking
Fortune 500 Power Moves:
Luca ZaramellaCFO of Mondelez International (No. 125), assumes the newly created role of Chief Operating Officer while retaining his duties as Chief Financial Officer for the time being. Zaramella, CFO since 2018, took up his role as COO effective February 1. business is looking for a successor to the position of CFO who will replace him.
Every Friday morning, the weekly Fortune 500 Power Moves column follows leadership changes at Fortune 500 companies:see the most recent edition.
More notable CFO moves:
Cassandra “Sandra” Harrisfinancial director of Genesco inc. (NYSE: GCO), a specialty retailer focused on footwear, will resign effective March 6 to pursue other opportunities. She will assist in the transition and remain as consultant and principal accountant until the company’s 2026 fiscal year 10-K filing on March 25. Mimi E. Vaughn, CEO of Genesco, will assume the role of interim CFO. Vaughn previously served as Genesco’s CFO from 2015 to 2019. The company launched an active search for a permanent CFO.
Bill Carey was appointed financial director of SOMETHINGa cybersecurity provider. Carey succeeds Simon Ho as CFO. Ho, who has held this position since February 2020, will retire and remain available in an advisory capacity. Prior to joining OPSWAT, Carey served as interim CFO and chief accounting officer at Couchbase. During his tenure, he played a key role in the company’s successful 2021 IPO.
Big deal
A Gartner, Inc. study highlights four financial strategies that CFOs should evaluate to drive effective growth amid today’s economic volatility: paying suppliers early to improve the bottom line; invest in areas that competitors cannot replicate; overhaul of zero-based general and administrative expenses (sales, general and administrative); and intentional deployment of debt.
The results are based on a Gartner analysis of more than 1,500 companies in the S&P 500, S&P 400 and S&P 600 indexes, which identified 105 “efficient growth” companies that generated a total shareholder return premium of 51% between 2014 and 2024. Gartner defines efficient growth as simultaneously achieving revenue growth, margin expansion and capital efficiency superior to those of the sector.
The full Gartner CFO report is available to Gartner clients. Non-clients can access CFO information and research summaries. here.
Go deeper
During an appearance on Fortune Industry Titans and Disruptors video podcast that Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla spoke with Fortune Editor-in-Chief Alyson Shontell talks about the triumphs and challenges of navigating the pharmaceutical giant through the pandemic and what’s next. Describing 2023 as a “very difficult time for me,” Bourla told Shontell that he believes that “winners in life are differentiated from losers because winners never fall. Winners always get up.”
Heard
“What type of leadership will we build to guide AI? »
—Carolyn Dewar, a senior associate in McKinsey & Company’s Bay Area office and head of the global CEO practice, writes in a Fortune opinion article. Dewar is the co-author of A CEO for all seasons: mastering the cycles of leadership.
