Two top executives are rethinking the role of the chief financial officer in the age of agentic AI.
Why it matters: Salesforce’s Robin Washington and PayPal’s Jamie Miller — both of whom lead the financial and operating functions at their organizations — represent a new generation of finance leaders transforming their roles to realize the benefits of digital labor.
By the numbers: A recent survey of over 250 global CFOs revealed a dramatic reversal in their approach to AI. While 70% reported their AI strategy was “conservative” in 2020, today, that number is only 4%. Digital labor is a driver of this strategic evolution:
- With AI agents arriving on the scene, 64% of CFOs say they’re reimagining how their business spends money, and 61% are changing how they calculate ROI.
- These leaders are now looking to leverage AI for long-term growth — not just operational efficiencies.
Go deeper: At a recent event, Washington and Miller explored how these strategic shifts are also expanding the role of the CFO:
- CFOs are becoming more deeply integrated into the operational side of the business to bring the full value of AI to their companies.
- “CFOs today have to truly be strategic business partners. It’s so much more than financial expertise, but a deep understanding of how a business operates, being a trusted partner,” said Washington.
- AI is accelerating the pace of change and enabling CFOs to be more disciplined, agile, and decisive.
- “I think that’s why you’re seeing more roles like ours, where we’re combining finance and operations together to really unlock insights and efficiencies that directly impact execution on the business’s highest priorities,” said Washington. “There’s huge value creation when you’re really leveraging AI side by side with the skill sets of CFOs, as well as operations.”
- CFOs are harnessing agentic AI as a lever for strategic growth, recognizing its transformative impact on both business models and operational efficiency.
- “AI is bringing CFOs to be far more integrated into operations – and in fact, they have to be if they’re going to be able to bring the full value of AI back to companies. You think about productivity in engineering, risk management decisions, or pricing optimization – you have to be deeply integrated in the different elements of your business to be able to imagine and push and create, whether it’s financial targets or accountability structures, to drive your peers to do it – and to know where to invest,” said Miller.
- AI is unlocking new revenue opportunities and helping companies reallocate employees to more value-added activities.
- “We’re in the midst of a transformation. So for me, it’s more about velocity and productivity – being able to do more with the same, and the reallocation of being able to take people doing certain work, remove that work, and really reallocate them to things that drive bigger opportunity for us,” Miller explained.
More information: Uncover more insights from Salesforce’s recent survey among global Chief Financial Officers.
