Technology
Big Four accounting firm Deloitte has refunded more than 97,000 Australian dollars (approximately 63,000 US dollars) in contract payments after submitting a report containing artificial intelligence-generated errors to the Australian Department of Employment and Workplace Relations. A department spokesperson confirmed on Tuesday that the contract was valued at approximately 440,000 Australian dollars, and the revised report was released this month.
EY executive Clare Adelgren points out that CFOs should view stablecoins as a 'redesign' of payment infrastructure, not as isolated assets. Since the signing of the GENIUS Act, corporate interest has surged, but CFOs need to start from strategic pressure points, evaluate cost savings in scenarios such as cross-border payments, and pay attention to 'digestibility.' Stablecoins will not replace existing payment rails but will develop in parallel.
Oracle announced on Wednesday the expansion of its AI agent portfolio for enterprise finance professionals, adding tools such as accounts payable. These agents are embedded in the Fusion Cloud Applications suite and were unveiled at the 2025 AI World Conference in Las Vegas. Oracle executives stated that this move will usher finance into a new era driven by intelligent agents.
On October 9, Gap Inc. announced a multi-year partnership with Google Cloud to accelerate its technology and AI strategy. The collaboration will integrate tools such as Gemini, Vertex AI, and BigQuery into the company's technology stack, aiming to enhance product development efficiency, optimize customer experience, and support employee decision-making. Gap executives emphasized a prudent approach to AI adoption, balancing innovation with risk.
CFO turnover has hit a seven-year high, bringing interim and part-time CFOs back into the spotlight. Sutker Moran President Scott Moran notes that retirements outnumber new CFO appointments, creating a supply-demand imbalance. Companies adopt team models to provide flexible senior financial support, emphasizing that financial leaders in the AI era must continuously learn new skills.
Three years since the launch of ChatGPT, attention to AI in the tax and finance field continues to rise, but full implementation still requires time. Michael Bernard, Chief Tax Officer at tax automation provider Vertex, points out that ensuring report accuracy requires not only a "human in the loop" but also tools that are "human-centric." A 2025 Thomson Reuters survey shows that only 6% of tax departments are active AI users, but 88% expect AI to become core within five years. Facing a shortage of accounting talent, companies are seeking "hybrid" talent with both tax and technical capabilities, while traditional financial knowledge remains the cornerstone.
In a joint interview, Rimini Street Chief Financial Officer Michael Perica and Chief Information Officer Joe Locandro stated that finance and IT departments should establish a dialogue mechanism that prioritizes strategy over budget. Both emphasized that CFOs and CIOs, as peer partners at the executive level, should jointly focus on value creation from enterprise-level technology investments, rather than mere cost minimization. The article also cites KPMG surveys and Mavrik research, noting that technology budget disagreements and AI cost overruns are widespread, and governance mechanisms need to be proactive rather than remedial.
According to the Financial Times, citing sources familiar with the matter, Elon Musk's long-time advisor and former Morgan Stanley banker Anthony Armstrong has been appointed Chief Financial Officer of xAI and X. He will oversee the finance departments of both companies simultaneously, succeeding X's former finance chief Mahmoud Reza Banki and filling the vacancy left by the departure of xAI's previous CFO Mike Liberatore. This move comes after Musk announced in March 2025 that xAI would acquire X in an all-stock deal, valuing the combined entity at approximately $113 billion.
A survey of 215 North American IT buyers by TD Cowen reveals that 42% of companies expect to invest over 30% of their cloud budgets in generative AI within the next three years, with related spending quadrupling by 2028. Gartner analyst Hardeep Singh recommends controlling costs through committed contracts, FinOps, and resource optimization, and notes that enterprises are shifting toward industry-specific cloud solutions to address compliance needs.
According to a Challenger, Gray & Christmas report, AI directly led to 7,000 job losses in September 2025, with the year-to-date total exceeding 17,000. The technology sector leads in layoffs, with companies such as Salesforce explicitly attributing job cuts to AI. The overall number of layoffs reached 946,000, the highest for the same period since 2020.