Good morning.
Recently about 130 finance chiefs at some of the world's largest companies gathered for McKinsey's Global CFO Forum. And though it was a closed-door meeting, Michael Birshan, global co-leader of McKinsey’s strategy and corporate finance practice was able to give me some intel about what went on behind the scenes.
“It was standing room only for our two sessions on A.I.,” Birshan told me. On average, the CFOs’ outlook on the use of A.I. both in the finance function and in the company at large was optimistic, he says.
What about generative A.I. in particular? “We asked how many people have used ChatGPT, and a lot of hands went up,” Birshan says. He explained a dynamic that he's seeing. The pandemic accelerated a focus on digital transformation for companies, and CFOs certainly have been involved with that process, he says. "What has been powerful is the vividness of generative A.I.—the fact that CFOs can play with it themselves,” Birshan says. “That’s different from some of the more enterprise technologies that they appreciate are powerful, but they might not have used it themselves.”
However, “CFOs are grappling with the question: How is generative A.I. going to make a value creation difference in my organization?” Birshan says.
At the same time, as A.I. assets become synonymous with value, the CFOs who were in attendance are increasingly viewing their role as the “digital challenger” and a natural counterweight to the CIO or the chief digital officer, he says. “The CFO is treating digital resource reallocation like capital reallocation, stewarding the most precious assets in the company,” Birshan says. This dynamic has been a progression. “But it’s becoming more critical on the agenda,” he says.
Another top topic that continues to concern CFOs is productivity challenges in the world given the ongoing energy transition, population trends and demographics, and geopolitical shifts, he says. When surveyed on their top priorities for the finance organization over the next 12 months, the focus on operational value drivers and management of key performance indicators increased 25 percentage points, compared to a previous survey. It was the biggest shift among categories, he says.
Strategy was also top of mind for the finance chiefs. “CFOs are thinking forward strategically, not just managing the numbers,” Birshan says. “Now, there's been an evolution, obviously, for quite a number of years. But what was striking to me is the number of CFOs who had the head of strategy now reporting to them, and the finance function spending more time on the strategic side of the business with the CEO.”
And some shared experiences of friction. “There's quite a conversation about CEO-CFO partnerships, what works effectively, and some stories of what might have worked less effectively,” Birshan says.
On that point, he wouldn't name names. But when McKinsey polled the group on what they'd most like to talk about next year, there was no question: "A.I. was no. 1,” Birshan says.
Sheryl Estrada
sheryl.estrada@fortune.com
