CFOs

Facing rising healthcare costs projected to increase 6.7% in 2026, employers are pressured to either absorb these costs or pass higher out-of-pocket expenses to workers. The article advises that before doing so, companies should ask healthcare providers about operational efficiency, suggesting that determining if existing capacity can be better utilized can prevent the need for expensive new physical expansions.

OpenAI CFO Sarah Friar stated that while tools like ChatGPT Work help teams 'spend less time reconciling the past and more time planning the future,' she emphasized that AI does not replace human judgment or financial rigor. Friar outlined building an AI-native finance function, sharing five lessons for CFOs on redesigning workflows and measuring value per unit of intelligence. Ultimately, she suggests the shift requires rethinking what finance is supposed to do with the increased time provided by AI.

Fortune 500 CEOs and CFOs report confusion and volatility in energy costs, with regional utility price changes impacting quarterly earnings. Commercial electricity prices have risen significantly, with PJM's wholesale grid costs jumping 54% in 2025, driven by aging infrastructure, surging demand from data centers and electric fleets, and unpredictable capacity market pricing.

Venture capitalist Chamath Palihapitiya claims CEOs and CFOs are unaware of the accumulating AI token spending within their companies. The issue is expected to impact earnings negatively.

Corporate strategy is increasingly managed by CFOs, with two-thirds of finance chiefs reporting strategy functions under their oversight, up from less than a third five years ago. AI is accelerating this shift, with CFOs leading enterprise-wide AI transformation and quantifying its impact on business operations.

AI is exceeding cost expectations, forcing companies to choose between AI tokens and human labor. This trade-off introduces a market risk that is not yet priced in.