Good morning. AI is rapidly becoming a board-level priority, pulling CFOs to the center of enterprise AI strategy.
That was a takeaway from the first Fortune Emerging CFO webinar of the year, held on Jan. 27 in partnership with Workday, during our discussion with three finance leaders: Tiffany Buchanan, CFO of Dataminr; Dan Durn, CFO and EVP of finance, technology, security and operations at Adobe; and Zachary Wasserman, CFO at Huntington Bancshares.
At Dataminr, AI is a standing item in the company’s annual operating plan and a factor in every budget decision, Buchanan said. She views AI adoption as non-negotiable across all functions, enabled by native capabilities in modern SaaS platforms and AI-powered tools that are now accessible to companies of all sizes. That approach positions the CFO as a strategic partner to the CEO, directing capital toward initiatives that drive growth and efficiency, Buchanan said.
Durn framed Adobe’s AI strategy around increasing “organizational velocity”—compressing the time from insight to action in a data-rich environment. Embedding AI across operations allows teams to detect signals faster and respond more effectively, he said. But technology alone is not enough; success also depends on culture, continuous learning, and leaders who bring intellectual curiosity rather than relying on static playbooks, Durn explained.
