Reshaping the CFO role frees up executives to focus on strategy and AI

He said that the role of the CFO has been evolving for years, but today it is happening more quickly than ever before Gina MastantuonoPresident and CFO of the company Service nowduring a panel of chief financial officers at Fortune’s Most Powerful Women Summit in Washington, D.C., on October 14. “It’s now a combination of strategic vision, disciplined execution, and enterprise-wide leadership,” she said. “Finance and strategy are now inseparable.”

In addition to her role as CFO, Mastantuno was recently promoted to President, where she now oversees global strategy and company development. “I tell my team every day that we have to perform and transform at the same time,” she said.

Yanela Friasexecutive vice president and chief financial officer at Prudential, moves to this position after years of leading business units. Book closing and financial reporting are automated with great teams, freeing up the CFO to focus on the organization’s strategy, Frias said. “What this allows us to do is partner with the CEO and leadership team to actually run the company,” she said.

The CFO is the “internal growth partner” on the executive team, helping leaders set bold goals, create guardrails, and reallocate resources as needed. Eli MertzCFO at AirbnbHe said. She said Mertz helps them unleash the potential they have within their team to push toward higher goals. She added that it also helps them understand “the appropriate barriers that we need to have so that we can move as quickly as possible to achieve those goals.”

CFOs have visibility across the entire organization, providing a unique perspective, Mastantuno said.

This perspective is increasingly putting financial leaders at the center of company-wide AI strategy. according to MackenzieExpectations for artificial intelligence and generative artificial intelligence are particularly high Among financial managerswith the belief that these technologies will unlock enterprise value.

Tends to artificial intelligence

The three leaders, CFOs at Fortune 500 companies, agreed that AI is already reshaping finance and operations.

Mastantuno said ServiceNow was able to achieve more than $350 million in annual savings driven by productivity gains. “We’ve reinvested a significant portion of that back into the business, but we’ve also allowed about $100 million to fall to the bottom line this year alone,” she said.

Not all savings have to be reflected in profits, Mastantuno said. You can use them to hire more people or support other areas of growth. “If you really lean into the business and show that it’s not just about pulling dollars to the bottom line — but investing for their future — you gain a lot more credibility,” she said.

Mertz views AI as a “capability gain,” enabling teams to not only reduce costs, but also do more impactful work and higher value tasks. “I hope we can drop something to the bottom line,” she said. “But even if we don’t do that, how can we create more capabilities in the organization so that we are faster, we are faster, we are smarter, and we can do more?” she said.

Frias explained that Prudential removed outdated processes in life insurance using AI, reducing underwriting times from weeks to seconds. This allows the business to grow efficiently, thus stimulating more investment, she said. This in turn allows teams to do more valuable work, in finance, for example, and become strategic partners to the business. “This is what we have to do versus manual work, and it will all be done using artificial intelligence,” Frias said.

You can View the full committee session here.