Good morning. Companies are increasingly calling on CFOs to help steer AI strategy and deliver real value.
Sarah Youngwood, EVP and CFO of Nasdaq, doesn’t view AI as a standalone initiative. Instead, she sees it as an embedded capability—one that is reshaping everything from market infrastructure to internal finance operations. Over the years, AI has been a transformative force for Nasdaq. Once known primarily as a stock exchange, the company has evolved into a large-scale software and technology provider for the financial industry, which has helped fuel its return to the Fortune 500.
Nasdaq’s New York headquarters sits above Times Square, where the company’s screens beam market signals to the street. Earlier this month, I visited Youngwood, who works a few stories up in a 26th‑floor corner office with large windows and a sprawling view of the Midtown skyline. The finance team sits right outside her office, where they can easily collaborate.
Today, Nasdaq’s strategy centers on three pillars: architecting modern markets, powering the innovation economy, and building trust across the financial system. Youngwood argues that AI sits at the core of all three. Nasdaq Verafin’s Agentic AI Workforce platform, launched last year, is now used by 650 financial institutions.
