That was one takeaway from the first Fortune Emerging CFO webinar of the year, held on January 27 in partnership with Workday, during our discussion with three finance leaders: Tiffany Buchanan, CFO of Dataminr; Dan Durn, CFO and EVP of finance, technology, security and operations at Adobe; and Zachary Wasserman, CFO of Huntington Bancshares.

At Dataminr, AI is a cornerstone of the company’s annual operating plan and a factor in every budget decision, Buchanan said. He sees AI adoption as non-negotiable across all functions, driven by the native capabilities of modern SaaS platforms and AI-powered tools now available to companies of all sizes. That approach positions the CFO as a strategic partner to the CEO, directing capital toward initiatives that drive growth and efficiency, Buchanan said.

Durn frames Adobe’s AI strategy in terms of increasing “organizational speed”—compressing the time from insight to action in a data-rich environment. Embedding AI throughout operations allows teams to detect signals faster and respond more effectively, he said. But technology alone is not enough; Success also depends on culture, continuous learning, and leaders who bring intellectual curiosity rather than reliance on static playbooks, Durn explained.

For Wasserman, adopting AI at a heavily regulated bank requires balancing speed with risk. With the model’s capabilities evolving rapidly, even a short delay could create a significant competitive disadvantage, he warned. Huntington responded by building a generative AI risk framework, prioritizing use cases by risk level, and requiring human oversight for higher impact applications, he said.

Those executive views underscore a broader shift now playing out in financial organizations: CFOs are moving from AI experimentation to implementation.

The data problem underpins the AI ​​push

Sommer Frazier, managing director of financial transformation at KPMG US, explained during the webinar that while most companies have adopted AI in some form, many remain stuck between pilot projects and scaled-up deployments, he 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 the role of finance as a steward of business data. According to a recent KPMG The AI ​​Pulse survey82% of executives today cite data quality as the main barrier to AI success. Frazier said finance leaders should help establish standards and governance frameworks, while business teams remain accountable on a day-to-day basis for the data they create and maintain.

Generative AI, once a novelty, is now embedded in everyday business tools, from productivity software to core financial systems, he said. Finance teams use it to summarize meetings, draft variance commentary, analyze scale contracts, and identify pricing and payment patterns that improve financial performance.

Looking ahead, Frazier expects 2026 to mark a shift toward augmented AI agent orchestration, with employees increasingly managing networks of AI agents rather than discrete processes. The result, he said, will be the relocation of financial talent to higher value analysis and decision making.

You can learn more about additional topics discussed by view the complete webinar here.

cheryl Estrada
[email protected]

LeaderBoard-

Fortune 500 Power Moves:

Luca ZaramellaCFO of Mondelez International (No. 125), is taking on the newly created role of chief operating officer while continuing to serve as CFO for the time being. Zaramella, chief financial officer since 2018, began the role of COO effective February 1. The company is conducting a search for a successor to the CFO position to replace him.

Every Friday morning, the weekly Fortune 500 Power Moves column tracks a Fortune 500 company’s C-suite move—see the latest edition.

More famous CFO moves:

Cassandra “Sandra” HarrisCFO of Genesco Inc. (NYSE: GCO ) a footwear-focused retailer, will step down effective March 6 to pursue other opportunities. He will assist with the transition and will remain as a consultant and principal accounting officer through the company’s fiscal 2026 Form 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 chief financial officer from 2015 to 2019. The company has begun an active search for a permanent CFO.

Bill Carey appointed CFO of ONE THINGa cybersecurity provider. Carey replaces Simon Ho as finance chief. Ho, who has held the role since February 2020, will retire and remain available in an advisory capacity. Prior to joining OPSWAT, Carey served as Couchbase’s interim CFO and chief accounting officer. During his tenure, he played a key role in the company’s successful initial public offering in 2021.

Great Deal

Research by Gartner, Inc. the four financial strategies CFOs should explore to drive efficient growth amid ongoing economic volatility: pay suppliers as quickly as possible to boost the bottom line; investing in areas that competitors cannot replicate; zero-based SG&A (selling, general, and administrative) redesign; and deliberate deployment of debt.

The findings are based on a Gartner analysis of more than 1,500 companies across the S&P 500, S&P 400, and S&P 600, which identified 105 “efficient growth” companies that provided a 51% total shareholder return premium from 2014 to 2024. simultaneously.

The full Gartner CFO report is available on the Gartner client. Non-clients can access relevant CFO insights and research summaries HERE.

deepened

In an appearance of It’s fortune Titans and Industry Disruptors video podcast, Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla spoke luck Editor-in-Chief Alyson Shontell on the triumphs and challenges of navigating the pharmaceutical giant’s pandemic and what’s shaping up afterward. Describing 2023 as a “very difficult time for me,” Bourla told Shontell that he believes that “winners in life are different from losers in life because winners never fall. Winners always stand up again.”

Heard

“What kind of leadership are we going to build to guide AI?”

—Carolyn Dewar, a senior partner in McKinsey & Company’s Bay Area office and leader of the global CEO Practice, wrote in a luck opinion piece. Dewar is the co-author of A CEO for All Time: Mastering the Leadership Cycles.