Good Morning, CFO
Thursday, August 14, 2025 The only newsletter a CFO needs to start the day right. (Made for CFOs who don’t have time to read five newsletters)
☕ Here’s what smart CFOs read before their first Zoom of the day…
In this issue
Finance bots that actually do math
Billy not-for-long at the IRS
Services rendered and deals that still get done
TECHNOLOGY, Rolling out
Finance bots are clocking in
Workday surveyed nearly 3,000 decision makers and the finance crowd is bullish on AI agents helping fix talent gaps. About two thirds of finance teams say agents are already in rollout or early production. Top targets are forecasting, financial reporting, and fraud prevention. Biggest blockers are the usual suspects like data security, privacy, and keeping up with regs. Translation: the bots can help you close faster, but they still need clean data and a leash.
CFO takeaway: Stand up a cross-functional AI working group to rank use cases by ROI and risk, then pilot two that touch revenue and one that cuts cycle time.
IRS: Going once, going twice…
Billy Long exits stage left
After a blink-and-you-miss-it tenure, Billy Long is out as IRS commissioner and Treasury’s Scott Bessent is filling in. The flashpoint is the agency’s stance on taxpayer data sharing and how far it will go with other departments. Net effect for finance teams is uncertainty on upcoming filing guidance and service levels at an already stretched agency.
CFO takeaway: Keep tax teams poised for late-breaking procedural updates and maintain conservative assumptions on response times.
M&A: Done deals
Financial services is quieter on volume, louder on value
KPMG’s latest trends read shows deal counts dipping across banks, insurance, and asset managers, yet total value jumped on a handful of mega moves. Banks are staring at a scale-or-surrender moment. Insurance brokerages keep consolidating to buy capabilities, not just spreadsheets.
CFO takeaway: If you are sub-scale, sharpen your defense with efficiency proof points and a synergy map. If you are acquisitive, lock financing now and pre-wire integration.
MARKET FORCES
Stat: $2 billion is Ford’s new bet on an affordable EV buildout in Louisville. Quote: “I could have made the markets go up on Liberation Day” said Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent while workshopping Tariffs: The Musical. Read: Warby Parker has kept 60% of frames at $95 despite tariffs and inflation. Pricing discipline is not dead, it’s just wearing acetate.
CFO takeaway: Treat cost pressure as a pricing lab. Tie every input shock to a testable price pack architecture rather than blanket increases.
QUICK HITS
Core inflation at 3.1% with services heating back up. Rate-cut hopes are intact, but the glide path is bumpy.
CFO musical chairs Urgently’s finance chief stepped down after two months and Citizens named a new CFO with State Street scooping the outgoing exec.
EU AI Act = your problem even if you are US-based and selling into Europe. Map use cases, vendors, and data flows now to avoid 2026 headaches.
Earnings prep gets an AI assist Salesforce’s finance team says pre-call grunt work now takes hours, not days.
CFO-APPROVED WATCHLIST
Read: A crisp roundup on financial-services megadeals and the consolidation math behind them. Watch: A quick explainer on how price points survive tariff shock without nuking margins. Listen: A panel on AI agents in finance that actually shows workflows, not vibes.
MORNING HACKS
AI agent pilot in 30 days Pick forecasting variance analysis and disclosure Q&A drafting. Define guardrails, feed last four quarters, measure cycle-time and error deltas.
M&A readiness sheet Keep a living two-pager with synergy levers, integration day-90 plan, and covenant headroom so you can move when the board pings you at 7:12 a.m.
Written by the caffeine-addled humans behind Good Morning, CFO. Forward to a CFO who still balances to the penny.