CFOs are pivotal to businesses’ efforts to navigate the AI-led transformation of industries. With their enterprise-wide oversight and guiding hand in developing a financial strategy, CFOs are uniquely positioned to manage AI adoption, balancing innovation with measurable outcomes.
Generative AI (GenAI) – including the coming wave of AI agents – can optimize operations, enhance decision-making, and drive revenue growth. Barclays Investment Bank analysts estimate that AI agents can execute any of around seven billion tasks independently, enabling system-wide productivity enhancement.
However, realizing these benefits requires more than simple technical implementation. CFOs must ensure that AI initiatives align with overarching business goals, avoiding divergent, siloed efforts and driving competitive advantage. If finance leaders can approach implementation strategically, AI has the potential to deliver significant returns on investment.
But many organizations are struggling to turn AI’s promise into meaningful results, with numerous AI projects failing to deliver on their objectives. Most AI projects often underperform – not just traditional AI, but also GenAI, and likely the AI agents that are set to emerge this year.
To navigate these complexities, organizations should focus on three essential dimensions of AI adoption: business value, data, and people. Together, these elements form a value-data-people framework, a structure for conceptualizing the critical questions that decision-makers must address. What value does the organization aim to create with AI? Does it have access to the required data? And how will employees and stakeholders perceive and adapt to the changes?
By keeping these considerations in focus, CFOs can better prioritize resources, mitigate risks, and increase the likelihood of long-term success.