5 takeaways from the Future of Finance event for CFOs

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On Tuesday, CFO.com hosted The Future of Finance Virtual Conference to discuss the transformative leadership role of today’s CFOs. Financial leaders — including Dr. Tim Naddy of Savannah Bananas, Amy Butte of Navan And Jean Cappadona EverSmith Brands — joined the CFO editorial team to offer insight into how the finance role of the future will take shape.

The sessions covered several hot topics important to today’s CFOs, including the use of AI in finance, finding talent for your finance team, and how to help fuel business growth and innovation.

Read on for a recap of the top five takeaways from our event, which we encourage you to follow. to watch on demand to get a complete picture.

1. The Future of AI in Financial Operations

Artificial intelligence is evolving rapidly, and CFOs are assessing its impact on their finance teams and organizations and exploring ways to exploit the new opportunities this technology offers. So, what does the future of AI for finance look like? Glenn HopperCFO and Head of AI Research at Eventus and John Cappadona, CFO at EverSmith Brands, presented their predictions on the intersection of AI technology and finance in the next three to five years.

“We’re going to focus on modeling. We’re going to be able to use the data we have to generate forecasts (three- or five-year models) and refine them and then do the analysis and see why, rather than collecting data and building the model. That’s really where I see it. There’s so much opportunity,” Cappadona said.

“Moonshot predicts that we’ll have general artificial intelligence within the next five years,” Hopper said. “It would be more realistic to think that we’d have reliable, trustworthy, generative artificial intelligence built into the software we already use today. And that’s the most likely and realistic prediction.”

2. Leadership in a horizontal organization

Both Eric Mason, CFO of the City of Quincy, Massachusettsand Amy Butte, CFO of Navanstated that they maintain a flat organizational structure, meaning there are no hierarchical layers between employees on their finance teams and management. Maintaining relationships in this way has proven incredibly valuable over time for both finance leaders and helps them improve their management and decision-making abilities.

Butte said, “When I think about collaboration with my team, people hear it all the time. Our goal in finance today is to be a strategic partner and not just tell them what the numbers are, but help them understand the data and what we’re doing as a team. So I’ve tried to bring in a much flatter structure, a lot more collaboration, a lot more transparency and knowing what’s going on across the organization, and I wouldn’t be here without my team.”

Mason added: “If I’m talking to my account manager about an accounting issue, I always make sure I come in knowing that this person does this job every day, that I may just be a small glimpse into their day, and that it’s okay for them to know more than I do. And I often try to highlight my team’s strengths and cover up for the weaknesses.”

Butte also noted that one of the his first hiresWhen she took over as head of Navan’s finance department, it was Anne Giviskos, someone she worked with at the New York Stock Exchange more than 20 years ago. “She helps me get better, and I’d like to think I could do the same for her. And I do, we say that all the time. It’s a team sport,” Butte said.

3. Innovate creatively and connect on purpose

Dr. Tim Naddy of Savannah Bananas He explained that finance teams and their leaders need to be able to work together to innovate and create momentum, which is not possible if you don’t work to build relationships within your team.

“We have to be able to innovate and keep that momentum going to stay relevant. We’re intentionally connecting. What does that mean? You grab your coffee cup and you walk around. And I know some of you hate people like that, but we’re CFOs. We have to set the tone,” Naddy said. “Grab your coffee cup, wave it like Office Space, and walk around and talk to your employees. They want to know who you are, just like you want to know who your team is.”

4. Protection of proprietary data in AI models

Finance executives should be careful about the data they upload to AI tools, such as ChatGPT, Gemini or Claude, and are advised against using proprietary data in off-the-shelf versions of these models, Hopper said.

“They tell you up front that your data could be used or will be used to train the model,” Hopper said. “The chances of your data being leaked all over the internet and coming back to the surface are small, but they’re not zero. If someone asked the right question, because the model has been trained on all the data that’s been given to it, your confidential information could come back to the surface.”

Hopper said there are ways to protect proprietary information from public disclosure provided you use paid AI models, which provide closed environments that make the data as safe as anything you put on the web.

“If you trust Amazon, Google and the tech giants to protect your other data, it will be the same, as long as you are in this system that protects it,” Hopper said.

5. Expand your talent search radius for the finance team

As CFOs look to outsource accounting functions Due to the talent shortage, they should consider looking outside their usual talent pool to fill vacancies within their finance teams.

“If you’re looking for people to fill positions for you, take a chance and go talk to the math departments. These kids are brilliant,” Naddy said. “The last two people I had in my finance department who were absolutely outstanding individuals didn’t have a degree in finance or accounting. They had a background in math and statistics.”

““For accounting students, what I would say to students is get a bachelor’s degree in a technical discipline, whether it’s finance or accounting … to set yourself up for success,” said Naddy, who is also an adjunct professor at Savannah College of Art and Design.