AI is giving CFOs an even bigger slice of the C-suite, new IBM knowledge exhibits
Good morning. AI is popping the CFO job into one thing a lot greater. Finance chiefs are more and more weighing selections that reach far past the stability sheet.
That’s a central discovering of an IBM Institute for Business Value research launched this morning. The analysis exhibits the CFO position is about to extend in breadth and depth, with “AI-first CFOs” leading the pack.
Sixty-two p.c of CFOs surveyed say their position has already expanded into enterprise know-how or AI technique management. More than half report better portfolio-management and capital-reallocation authority and extra accountability for business-model or growth-strategy design.
More putting, by 2030, greater than half of CFOs surveyed anticipate a good wider remit: 56% anticipate better accountability for monetary and moral guardrails surrounding AI; 55% anticipate to assist form working fashions, workforce methods and organizational construction; and 52% anticipate an even bigger position in enterprise worth creation and portfolio technique.
The findings resonate with Jim Kavanaugh, IBM’s CFO and SVP of finance and operations, who has led finance on the know-how firm for practically a decade.
“For years, the CFO position centered on controllership, danger, fiduciary tasks, balance-sheet preservation and money administration,” stated Kavanaugh, IBM’s CFO since 2018 and a greater than 30-year firm veteran. “Today, know-how is on the core of sustainable aggressive benefit. The CFO is a price creator.”
In the previous decade—and maybe even the previous 5 years—CFOs have shifted from what Kavanaugh calls a “guardian of stability” to an “agent of transformation.”
AI is making the CFO position extra interconnected with different C-suite features, not changing them, Kavanaugh stated. CEOs set strategic course; know-how leaders allow new capabilities; COOs reimagine workflows; and CHROs form expertise and tradition, he stated. The CFO’s activity is to attach these selections to an capital allocation thesis, working mannequin and measurable worth.
“I believe CFOs who co-architect the AI technique enterprise mannequin can form financial hubs and outline new sources of worth,” Kavanaugh stated.
Why finance’s AI transformation continues to be lagging
The IBM survey, carried out with Oxford Economics, gathered views from 1,500 CFOs throughout 33 geographies and 26 industries within the first half of 2026, together with CFO interviews.
Another putting discovering: Just 6% of CFOs described their finance group as transformation-ready, that means AI is constantly embedded in workflows and decision-making at scale.
Kavanaugh stated that hole is essentially a sequencing downside: Companies usually begin with AI instruments moderately than the underlying work wanted to make them helpful. He identifies three conditions: sound knowledge structure and governance, business-model and workflow redesign, after which know-how deployment.
“Many folks fail as a result of they begin with AI know-how first,” Kavanaugh stated. “You need to unlock the information and unlock the business-model reimagination of labor.”
Kavanaugh pointed to IBM’s quote-to-cash course of, which spans all the pieces from buyer quotes and contracting by billing, collections, and money receipt. IBM discovered 364 completely different iterations throughout job roles and features, then redesigned the method as an end-to-end, cross-functional workflow, utilizing AI to automate lots of the steps.
The outcome, he stated, was 90% touchless automation, a 60% productiveness enchancment, and a 54% enhance within the velocity of money conversion. IBM has generated $4.5 billion in productiveness over the previous three years and goals to achieve $5.5 billion in 2026. The firm sees these positive factors as capability to spend money on development, moderately than merely value slicing.
The research provides an in-depth evaluation of how “AI-first CFOs” excel throughout 5 disciplines: shaping benefit, governance, intelligence, capital movement and constructing optionality. Companies led by AI-first CFOs achieved turnover development charges 23% increased than peer organizations from 2022 to 2024, in response to IBM.
In Kavanaugh’s view, the defining problem isn’t treating AI as a know-how challenge with a folks part. It is treating AI as a enterprise transformation that mixes human and digital work to create sustainable enterprise worth.
Sheryl Estrada
[email protected]
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Fortune 500 Power Moves
Dave Fox, CFO of Northern Trust Corporation (No. 317), has introduced his retirement. Fox intends to stay in his position by the tip of the primary quarter of 2027 to help a transition interval. Northern Trust plans to conduct an inner and exterior seek for its subsequent CFO. During this time, it’s anticipated that Fox will proceed to guide finance and work carefully with Michael O’Grady, chairman and CEO, and the management group. Fox joined Northern Trust in 2012. Before changing into CFO, he held roles together with president of worldwide household and personal capital allocation workplaces and EVP and head of the Americas for company and institutional providers. Before becoming a member of Northern Trust, Fox spent greater than 25 years at JPMorgan.
The weekly Fortune 500 Power Moves column tracks Fortune 500 firm C-suite shifts—see the most recent edition.
More notable strikes:
Kathy Cherian was appointed CFO of David’s Bridal, efficient instantly. Most lately, Cherian was CFO of Magnolia, the place she oversaw finance throughout its retail, e-commerce, media, hospitality and consumer-products companies. She beforehand spent greater than a decade at Nike, together with as CFO of Nike Canada and in world business-planning roles.
Rachita Sundar was appointed CFO of Zendesk, efficient Sept. 28. Sundar succeeds Julie Swinney, who has transitioned to chief administrative officer and government sponsor of Zendesk’s Employee Service enterprise. Sundar brings greater than 20 years of finance and business-operations expertise from know-how corporations together with Microsoft Azure, HubSpot, and Qualtrics.
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Overheard
“The industries the place AI issues most are nonetheless not those getting essentially the most consideration. Housing has monumental issues to unravel, and we’ve grown by going deeper with our prospects till we resolve them on the root.”
—Minna Song, founder and CEO of EliseAI, informed Fortune in an interview. EliseAI, the bogus intelligence firm that automates back-office work for landlords and well being methods, has raised $350 million at a $4 billion valuation, practically doubling its valuation from simply over a yr in the past.
