Opinion
AI has been applied in the accounts payable field for one year, and finance teams are shifting from "AI-enhanced" to "AI-native" operations. This article summarizes key lessons from this transition, including AI's role in reducing costs and enhancing insights, as well as changes in CFO focus, and provides an outlook on trends for 2026.
Despite long-standing criticism over its non-GAAP nature and inconsistent definitions, EBITDA remains deeply embedded in corporate valuation, credit covenants, and incentive compensation systems. Michael Paull, President and CFO of The Ahola Corporation, argues that financial leaders should not shy away from the metric's flaws but instead build a bridge from EBITDA to cash flow, making explicit the balance sheet changes, non-cash items, and other factors that EBITDA overlooks. Such a bridge not only helps detect accounting errors, fraud, or working capital anomalies early but also serves as a lever in budget comparisons, bank reporting, and board presentations, ultimately transforming EBITDA from a vague earnings figure into a strategic tool for diagnosing operational quality and cash conversion efficiency.
This article is written by Diya Sagar, CFO of AWA Studios. Drawing on her experience as an investment banker, corporate strategy leader, and investor, she points out that there is a widespread expectation gap between capital providers (investors) and recipients (companies), and offers actionable communication and decision-making advice for financial leaders across three dimensions: "Do not make promises you cannot keep," "Make invested capital generate excess returns," and "Prioritize protecting capital in the face of risk."
Artificial intelligence is reshaping how finance executives work, but tax advisors who fail to evolve in tandem may become a weak link in corporate strategy. This article presents six signals to help CFOs determine whether their tax partners remain stuck at the "tax filing" level rather than acting as true strategic collaborators.
An executive's move to a board of directors is not a simple promotion but a profound transformation involving role, mindset, relationships, leadership, and cultural awareness. This article points out that directors must shift from executors to fiduciaries, replace individual competition with collective decision-making, and engage in continuous learning to adapt to new environments. Ignoring these transitions can lead to failure in fulfilling duties and may even affect the overall effectiveness of the board.
The year-end financial close has always been the most stressful period for CFOs, where fragmented data and manual processes often lead to chaos. This article cites insights from SAP product leader Lawrence Martin, combined with research from Economist Impact and Gartner, to explain how AI, through intelligent anomaly detection, automated calculations, and explanatory logic, transforms the close from a technical task into an insight-driven strategic process, while emphasizing the importance of cross-system data integration and governance.
CFOs face pressure to leverage AI for efficiency, but excessive transformation leads to team fatigue and lower adoption rates. The PAUSE framework provides a human-centric AI integration strategy, emphasizing people-first planning, enhancement over replacement, upskilling, sustainable pacing, and evaluating evolution to protect employee well-being and achieve long-term ROI.
In an article, Jessica Martin, CFO of large industrial construction firm Nox Group, points out that rapid expansion brings significant opportunities and risks, requiring CFOs to proactively manage talent, technology, processes, culture, and executive synergy to avoid losing control. The article proposes four core lessons: building an operational scaffolding, treating culture as a scaling driver, being wary of growth for growth's sake, and ensuring strong alignment among the executive team, citing LSA Global research data to illustrate the significant impact of executive alignment on corporate performance.
This article explores how AI and analytical technologies empower supply chain management amid frequent tariff policy adjustments. Through real-time monitoring, digital twin simulations, scenario analysis, and risk modeling, AI helps enterprise CFOs make forward-looking decisions under uncertainty, achieving cost optimization and profit protection.
Cornerstone Research's mid-2025 report shows that over the past 12 months, 117 companies with assets exceeding $100 million filed for bankruptcy, a 44% year-over-year increase, with 32 of these being 'large bankruptcies' involving assets over $1 billion. CFOs must leverage early warning indicators such as changes in payment behavior, order anomalies, public signals, and personnel changes, combined with a four-step action framework (assess exposure, adjust credit terms, strengthen monitoring, review contract rights), to mitigate losses before client bankruptcies occur.