GOOD MORNING, CFO
Happy New Year!
Alright, now let’s get into the stuff your finance team will argue about in the comments.
AI / PRODUCTIVITY
AI just shaved 7.5 days off the close, allegedly
A new MIT/Stanford study says AI can cut monthly close time by 7.5 days.
Not hours, days.
Which is either the greatest operational glow-up in finance history, or a sign your close process was basically running on vibes and caffeine.
If that number is even half true, the question is not “should we use AI?” It’s “why are we still accepting a close that eats half the month?”
But here’s the part nobody wants to answer out loud.
If AI takes the grunt work, what exactly becomes the new bottleneck? Data hygiene? Approvals? Intercompany? Legacy ERPs held together by prayers?
Or is it leadership, because “we’ve always done it this way” is the strongest internal control of all.
Questions for the finance grown-ups:
If AI can cut the close by a week, what is stopping you, tools, data, or politics?
If the close gets faster, do you actually get better insights, or just faster spreadsheets?
What would you delete first to speed up close, a report, a reconciliation, or a meeting that should have been a Slack message?
AI / RISK / GOVERNANCE
Deloitte’s AI oops moment is your future unless you build guardrails
The Australian government says Deloitte Australia agreed to refund part of a payment after a report contained AI generated errors.
Translation: the “AI copilot” didn’t just hallucinate, it did it in a paid deliverable, in public, with receipts.
This is the part where every company says “human in the loop,” and then quietly uses AI like it’s autocomplete for reality.
Cool. Until the board asks why a public document has nonsense in it, and your controls look like a group chat.
The bigger story here is not Deloitte. It’s governance. Who owns the risk when AI is producing analysis, summaries, or even draft numbers? IT? Legal? Finance? Or the intern with the ChatGPT tab open because deadlines do not care about your framework.
Questions CFOs should answer before AI answers for them:
What counts as “AI assisted” work that needs a formal review standard?
If your model hallucinates in a report, who gets dragged, the tool vendor, the analyst, or you?
TALENT / OPERATING MODEL
The accounting talent shortage is “easing” and the profession is side-eyeing itself
A deep dive suggests the accounting talent shortage may be cooling, partly because AI and offshore support are taking pressure off hiring.
Also because “layoff fears” are creeping into the profession. Nothing says pipeline stability like, “Don’t worry, we found efficiency.”
So what is it really?
Is the shortage easing because we solved the talent problem, or because we redesigned the work so fewer people are needed? And if fewer entry level humans do the early career grind, how do you develop the next wave of seniors and managers?
This is where everyone pretends it’s just “reallocation to higher value work.”
Sure. But show the org chart.
Show the promotions.
Show the training time.
Otherwise this is just cost cutting in a hoodie.
Question for CFOs and controllers who live in reality:
If entry-level work disappears, what replaces the training ground for future leaders?
OPERATIONS / TRANSFORMATION
Mondelēz dropped $1.2B on ERP and supply chain modernization, through 2028
Mondelēz has a $1.2B multi year project to revamp its global ERP and supply chain systems, targeting completion by 2028.
It’s not a “cool AI pilot.” It’s the boring, expensive stuff that decides whether your forecasting is accurate or fan fiction.
They’re trying to unify fragmented systems across regions, different databases, different clouds, different everything.
Because acquisitions and legacy infrastructure have a way of turning finance into an archaeology project.
This is the kind of initiative that looks great on a strategy slide and then quietly eats years of attention, budget, and patience. CFOs know the drill.
Scope creep shows up uninvited. Stakeholders promise “minimal disruption” while operations screams. And the ROI math gets…creative.
Questions for anyone who has survived an ERP project and still has feelings:
Is $1.2B the price of modernization, or the tax for waiting too long to fix the foundation?
What kills these programs faster, tech risk, change management, or executive churn?
If you are a CFO, what’s your one non-negotiable metric to prove this is working before 2028?
Brought to you by..
Valuation, Not Just Revenue
Many founders still assume revenue equals valuation. CFOs know better.
Matteo Turi (CFO, board director, and advisor on $500M+ in capital raises) has built a practical framework that explains what investors actually underwrite: transferable value.
His High Valuation Code breaks valuation down into three levers CFOs can influence directly:
IP monetization
Succession and governance depth
Scalable, repeatable expansion models
The framework is built from real transactions across SaaS, healthcare, energy, and infrastructure; not startup folklore.
If you’re advising founders, preparing for capital raises, or thinking beyond top-line growth, it’s worth reviewing.