If you’re a CFO, chances are that at the beginning of your career, this job was something else entirely. Modern CFOs are strategists, technologists and tacticians—and they still balance the books. AI is accelerating that transformation—but only when deployed thoughtfully and used well.I spoke with Scott McDermott, CFO of AI-powered financial business platform Esker, about how to successfully upgrade your finance department, both through building strategy and using AI. An excerpt from our conversation is later in this newsletter. We’re taking a short break next week, so the next edition of Forbes CFO will land in your inboxes on Tuesday, June 16. Until next time.This is the published version of Forbes' CFO newsletter, which offers the latest news for chief finance officers and other leaders focused on the budget. Sign up here to get it delivered to your inbox every Tuesday.Economic IndicatorsgettyLooking at corporate profits alone, these are boom times. In the last quarter, corporate profit hit a new record of $4.39 trillion, writes Forbes senior contributor Erik Sherman. Corporate profits have skyrocketed—especially since the Covid-19 pandemic—and keep on increasing. And it isn’t just the tech sector—retail trade, construction, wholesale trades, durable goods manufacturing and healthcare are responsible for 73% of the post-pandemic corporate profit surge. Most of that money—76%—has gone toward shareholder dividends, but 15% represented retained profits.Companies can increase profits by passing along higher costs to consumers, and today’s consumers are feeling more and more strain. Forbes senior contributor Mayra Rodriguez Valladares writes that overall, Americans are spending more to buy less, and getting into more precarious financial positions. Credit card balances stand at $1.25 trillion—up 63% from five years ago—and nearly three out of 10 buy now, pay later users say they’re using that financing to buy groceries. The personal saving rate is down to 2.6%—down from close to 5% in January. As AI use expands, the way we measure business success could hide consumer pain. Forbes’ Brandon Kochkodin writes that as AI allows companies to potentially do the same work with fewer people, unemployment could increase—and businesses do even better. Economists say that at the very least, this means people need to stop thinking about economic conditions through textbook-era models. And yes, AI could bring both high corporate profits and high unemployment—but it could also have an impact on profits and jobs similar to that of other technological revolutions, including automated manufacturing, computers in the workplace and the internet.Stock Market NewsIt’s official: 2026 will be the year of the mega-IPO. This week, AI powerhouse Anthropic confidentially filed initial paperwork with the Securities and Exchange Commission to go public late this year. The filing came less than a week after the company overtook OpenAI as the most valuable AI startup, with a $900 billion valuation following a Series H fundraise of $65 billion.Anthropic has seen a meteoric rise in its usage, reputation and valuation in 2026. At the close of its previous funding round in February, the company’s valuation was $380 billion. Anthropic’s Claude is currently used by more than 56,000 companies, according to tech stack tracker Bloomberry. On the enterprise side, many companies tap into its coding abilities. But Claude is also gaining popularity with consumers, accounting for 14% of all AI app downloads in Q2, according to Sensor Tower statistics, and posting a higher growth rate than other AI apps.Notable NewsWhile it’s relatively easy to track the economy’s health through indicators including the stock market, monthly reports on inflation and employment and quarterly GDP growth, Forbes senior contributor Mayra Rodriguez Valladares pinpoints less-seen—but just as consequential—areas for concern. Non-Depository Financial Institutions—including private credit funds, mortgage originators, hedge funds and private equity vehicles—are getting the lion’s share of bank loans. Loans to NDFIs add up to $1.47 trillion—an increase of 2,518% since 2010. While banks are well-regulated, NDFIs are not, though several regulatory rollbacks since January 2025 have made it easier for banks to lend to these types of businesses.The global private credit market currently sits at $2 trillion, and $322 billion of bank lending is committed to these funds, Rodriguez Valladares writes. It currently provides 77% to 83% of all leveraged buyout financing in the U.S., and in April, the default rate for private credit was 6%. This creates potential problems, with borrowed money based on borrowed money in a precarious financial environment. In its report last month, the Financial Stability Board identified four vulnerable areas in the system, finding it’s extremely difficult to know how large the problem is—though individual banks have disclosed hundreds of billions of dollars. The system could be shored up with more regulation, but it’s difficult to predict what might actually happen—and the impact it could have on the wider economy.Off The LedgerUpgrading Your Finance Department Through Strategy And AIEsker CFO Scott McDermott.EskerThe CFO’s job is rapidly changing. Today’s CFO has a much more strategic role than predecessors in decades past, but they also need to be able to deploy AI. I talked to Scott McDermott, CFO of AI-powered financial business platform Esker, about how to adapt—both on the strategy and AI sides of the job. This conversation has been edited for length, clarity and continuity. The CFO’s job has evolved from one of financial stewardship to strategy. How prepared are CFOs for this change?McDermott: If you go back to when I started, we used to do things paper-based and now we have AI agents. Within a 15-to-20-year time span, things have rapidly evolved from a technology perspective. And the role of a CFO 20 years ago was much more compliance, bookkeeping, reporting. One of the important things that a CFO has a responsibility to do is not only educate the CEO, board and executive committee, but also foster mentorship for the next generation.The way I do that is by using AI and trying to be a cheerleader for those tools and technology and setting examples. I got the opportunity to progress to the CFO chair, and I did that through a combination of good luck, hard work and also, most importantly, very good mentors. And I spend time with my teams and show them how to do things, rather than just sitting back in a kingdom-like office and getting them to do everything for me.Technology is great, but there’s also the human side of the equation. How can finance departments be restructured to make sure they’re taking advantage of AI?Finance professionals generally are more introverted, so I don’t think they’re predisposed to adopt changing technology quickly. I look at my teams. Change management is a big area. It’s about: How do I enable them to use the technology? I’ve adopted AI in my day-to-day because it makes me much better at what I do. I can do more functional things today than I could six months ago. I’m learning and getting faster all the time, becoming a better individual contributor while also being the CFO. I’m trying to establish a small powerful team of high caliber and potential individuals—I call them wizards—that can come on the journey with me and then can infuse that across the organization. You need to have individuals that can help bring the organization through the change at a more individual contributor level. Then it’s about training, enablement, workshops and teamwork. We have group meetings where I’ll ask one of the ‘wizards’ to present some of the developments they’ve adopted over the last four weeks and have the teams get comfortable in using the technology—because they’re very fearful at first.This is where the AI narrative gets misunderstood. Everyone thinks AI is an all-or-nothing trade–it’s going to do 100% of somebody’s job. The reality is in a lot of jobs, they’re only doing 40% of it because 50% to 60% is dealing with noise around that job. Forty percent of an AP person’s time is spent answering customer emails on when they’ll get paid. Where AI can be very powerful is in enabling individuals to do that role more completely and giving them time back. And that will allow them to focus more on strategic sides of the business.What advice would you give to CFOs for bringing on the right new tools and getting their department set to use them?You can’t be afraid of technology. The CFO mindset is naturally to be cautious. For me, it’s the opposite. You actually have to adopt the technology, let the risk envelope around a bit and then figure it out as you go.Make sure you make the budget available to enable people. A lot of CFOs think linearly: ‘I’ll enable 15% of my workforce this year and 15% next, and we’ll do it over the next five years.’ What has to happen is you say, ‘We’re going to be ambitious and aggressive, and get to 100% as quick as possible. If we do, we will improve across the company and the return on investment is translatable.’Comings + GoingsPharmaceutical solutions firm Cencora appointed Eva Boratto as its new executive vice president and chief financial officer, effective June 29. Boratto joins the company from Bath & Body Works where she worked as chief financial officer. She will succeed James F. Cleary, who is retiring.Pest control brand holding company Rollins elected William W. Harkins as its executive vice president and chief financial officer, effective June 15. Harkins currently works as chief accounting officer for the firm, and he will succeed Kenneth D. Krause.Amusement park operator Six Flags appointed Ash Walia as its chief financial officer, effective June 17. Walia joins the company from Hot Topic where he worked in the same role, and he’s also worked in leadership at 99 Cents Only Stores as well as Starbucks.Facts + CommentsForbes published its inaugural Iconoclast 50 list today, honoring some of the most influential people in business, finance, entertainment, media and technology. Honorees appear on at least one other Forbes list, and have made a meaningful impact on their industry in the last two years.$2.5 trillion: Combined net worth of all 50 list members10: Number of list members that are women30: Age of the youngest honorees: Kalshi cofounders Luana Lopes Lara and Tarek Mansour. The oldest is 95-year-old legendary former Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren BuffettStrategies + AdviceThe CFO’s job is never easy, but as everything is constantly changing nowadays, there’s more to worry about. For financial leaders concerned about profit, AI, risk and investment, here are 10 things to do to move toward strategic growth.Sure, there are “tried and true” actions to take to be more successful, but there’s no guarantee they work well for everyone. Here’s how to identify strategies that don’t work for you—even if they are popularly recommended—and find something that will. QuizWhich of these deals fell apart this last week, after the company to be acquired said it was undervalued by the sale price?A. Tilman Fertitta’s purchase of Caesars EntertainmentB. Bill Ackman’s Pershing Square Capital’s purchase of Universal Music GroupC. Paramount Skydance’s purchase of Warner Bros. DiscoveryD. Kimberly-Clark’s purchase of KenvueSee if you got the right answer here.