The One-Pager: What an

The One-Pager: What an "AI First CFO" looks like.

The One-Pager
3 minute read

Welcome back to The One-Pager.

Financial modeling and AI news, in about 90 seconds.

Skim. Read. Get on with your day.

One Big Headline

BCG says the CFO's job is flipping and walks through what the new "AI First CFO" looks like.

While I love EBITTTDA (Earnings before Interest, Taxes, Tariffs, Tokens, D&A), investors are now demanding some ROI on the AI spend vs the "light all cash on fire" approach of Q1.

I can't verify this, of course, but a few really interesting stats emerged for "companies at the leading edge of AI-first finance":

  • 50% or more improvement in the predictive power of finance models
  • 90% reporting automation and 80% touchless invoicing
  • 30% or more of finance team capacity freed for higher-value advisory work (consultants can now say "but does it scale?" at 1.3x the previous output)

As I'm reading this article I feel myself falling behind -- so nice every time AI launches something new. But this hallmark quote really stood out to me:

"CEOs must bear in mind that prediction does not eliminate human judgment. If anything, it demands more of it. Finance leaders will need to decide which signals matter, where human judgment must override the model, and where finance transformations are stalling."

The article intelligently points out that AI should "not replace the ledger or other core financial systems that produce the numbers," but rather, sit on top and be used as guidance to help make better decisions, closer to real-time.

It will be very interesting to follow along and see how some of the best companies can truly weave AI into their workflows into a repeatable and reliable way.

It's a genuinely interesting read (and not too long) -- give it a look.

Other stuff to check out:

OpenAI built finance plugins into Codex -- Including Investment Banking and Public Equity Investing plugins that package comps, diligence, and market analysis into client-ready output, running on data sources like FactSet and S&P.

FASB proposes changes to hedge accounting -- A proposed update would let you designate any tenor of SOFR, hedge interest-rate risk on held-to-maturity securities, and use certain cross-currency swaps for net investment hedges. Painfully boring, but relevant if you model debt and interest.

Anthropic launched Claude Fable 5, then pulled it -- Anthropic released its most capable general model on June 9, then took it offline three days later under a US government export directive. This post from Secret CFO made me chuckle (and I'm inclined to agree).

Thoma Bravo's Orlando Bravo on AI upending software deals -- The buyout billionaire is rethinking how the firm invests as AI scrambles software valuations, after a $5B loss on one bet. (Bloomberg, paywalled.)

That's it for this one. See you next time.
—Chris

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