Technology
Kroger announced accelerated AI deployment during its Q2 2025 earnings call, covering areas such as pricing, shrink, and fulfillment. Leveraging years of data accumulation and support from its 84.51° division, the company plans to enhance competitiveness through AI and will provide updates on strategic review progress in Q3.
A survey commissioned by AI cost management company Mavvrik and conducted by Benchmarkit reveals that most enterprises have significant deviations in AI cost forecasts: 56% of enterprises have errors between 11% and 25%, and nearly a quarter (24%) have errors exceeding 50%. 84% of respondents stated that AI costs cause gross margin losses of more than 6%, with over a quarter of enterprises experiencing losses of 16% or more. Mavvrik CEO Sundeep Goel predicts that as pilot projects transition to production environments in the first half of 2026, CFOs will face substantial cost overruns.
Vena, a financial planning and analysis (FP&A) software provider, announced on Monday the launch of new artificial intelligence 'planning agents' that have already helped customers reduce budget cycles by more than 60% during private preview. Vena stated that these agents operate seamlessly within Excel and other Microsoft products, aiming to accelerate budgeting, forecasting, and scenario modeling. The company's Chief Technology Officer, Hugh Cumming, noted that the tool enables decision-makers to simulate outcomes and adjust strategies without waiting weeks or months.
A survey released Wednesday by financial software provider Datarails shows that the vast majority of executives still view CFOs and their teams as the "department of no." Despite CFOs' efforts to transform into collaborative business partners, 97% of surveyed executives believe the finance department's main focus is limiting spending, and only 18% of respondents strongly agree that the finance department considers their strategic needs when making decisions.
Walmart has reached a partnership with OpenAI to develop a custom AI certification program for U.S. employees, with courses expected to launch in 2026. This initiative is part of Walmart's nearly $1 billion commitment to skills training, aimed at enhancing employees' AI application capabilities.
Jennifer Warawa, General Manager of Financial Controls at insightsoftware, states that AI is driving a shift in the skills required for finance functions, accelerating the evolution of CFOs toward strategic advisors. She believes AI can free up time for finance professionals, but attention must be paid to how that time is utilized. Additionally, CFOs need to acknowledge varying attitudes toward technology within their teams and carefully select AI use cases to avoid accelerating errors in flawed processes.
The research report "The Glass Chair: Unlocking the Value of Women in Finance," released by OneStream Software on Wednesday, indicates that appointing female CFOs in underperforming companies leads to an average 10% increase in total shareholder returns. The study also found that female CFOs at Fortune 500 and FTSE 100 companies drive shareholder value above industry benchmarks, with the healthcare sector seeing the highest outperformance at 4.7%.
PwC announced the acquisition of "substantially all assets" of Kunai, a Bay Area-based fintech consulting firm, to accelerate technology modernization in banking. This move will help CFOs obtain verifiable evidence of results before committing substantial budgets. The transaction amount was not disclosed.
Research released by Zenity Labs at Black Hat USA 2025 indicates that multiple mainstream AI agents from companies such as Microsoft, Google, and OpenAI have severe hijacking vulnerabilities, enabling attackers to execute attacks with minimal or no user interaction, including data theft, workflow manipulation, user impersonation, and persistence in long-term memory.
According to the latest Grant Thornton research, about 70% of business leaders view resource optimization as their top priority for technology investment this year. As technology spending continues to rise, enterprises are shifting from 'big bang' large-scale deployments to more flexible iterative methods to achieve faster value and improve long-term profit margins. Gartner forecasts global IT spending will reach $5.43 trillion in 2025, a year-over-year increase of 7.9%.