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The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York announced on Friday that fraud charges have been filed against the former CEO and former CFO of the defunct AI platform iLearningEngines, accusing them of fabricating "nearly all" customer relationships and revenue. The two allegedly inflated revenue through false contracts over several years, deceiving retail and institutional investors.
A PwC survey found that 81% of C-level executives expect their companies to wait at least another year before seeing substantial returns from AI investments beyond efficiency improvements. Despite the delayed returns, most companies still plan to maintain or increase AI spending. Dan Priest, PwC's US Chief AI Officer, noted that CFOs will play a central role in the next phase of AI adoption, driving transformation by focusing on high-impact projects and ensuring investments translate into measurable business value.
The cannabis industry forces financial leaders to operate under conditions rarely seen in other sectors. Federal prohibition and the tax constraints of Section 280E continue to impact corporate cash flow management, expansion planning, and financial structures. CFO.com's 2026 cannabis special report, through case studies of financial discipline at scale among New York retailers and how professional financial training networks empower CFOs and advisors to address unique accounting and tax challenges, reveals the emerging blueprint of the industry's financial playbook and provides transferable lessons for CFOs across the sector.
At its November 2025 partner webinar, Avalara highlighted how its agentic AI strategy is reshaping compliance processes and previewed upcoming standardized onboarding experiences, a partner success playbook, and gamified learning tools. The session also recognized 2025 partner achievements, including tier advancements, the MVP contest, and annual award previews, while reaffirming the three core program goals of growth, peace of mind, and ease of use.
Over the past decade, finance organizations have relied on ERP, procure-to-pay, and business intelligence platforms to track spending, but contracts—the foundation of spend governance—remain outside financial systems. Financial Contract Intelligence has emerged to address this, using AI to parse contract terms and convert static documents into queryable structured data, enabling finance teams to verify charges, identify discrepancies, track renewals, and answer complex questions in real time. This article explores how this technology bridges the financial visibility gap, drives the shift from reporting to control, and introduces how the SpendBrain platform builds a permanent spend advantage.
PepsiCo Chief Financial Officer Steve Schmitt said Thursday that as the US-Israel and Iran conflict continues, the company expects inflation to arrive, though the exact magnitude is still being assessed. The company relies on hedging and pricing actions to absorb potential pressures and maintains its full-year earnings outlook.
At its Wednesday meeting, the FASB decided to add illustrative examples to the Statement of Cash Flows topic (Topic 230) to clarify whether certain digital assets meet the definition of cash equivalents. Board members insisted on not modifying the strict definition of cash equivalents, instead focusing on the criteria for determination. Next, FASB staff will draft a proposed update and enter a 90-day comment period.
As CFOs' responsibilities expand, they increasingly rely on technologies such as artificial intelligence to uncover insights for decision-making. Maria Montenegro, CEO of the Enterprise Performance and ESG division at Wolters Kluwer, said in an interview with CFO Dive that the biggest challenge financial executives face when deploying such tools is change management. She emphasized that transformation should not be technology-led but should be driven by business value and processes, while engaging people. A global survey shows that 53% of CFOs lead digital transformation, and 27% cite "change resistance and cultural factors" as the biggest obstacle. Montenegro also pointed out that technology outpaces human adaptability, and successful transformation requires process optimization as the core, with technology serving only as an enabler.
Federal Reserve Policy Committee Vice Chairman John Williams said on Thursday that despite significant risks and uncertainties from the Iran war, the current monetary policy stance is sufficient to balance employment and price stability goals. He expects the U.S. economy to grow by 2% to 2.5% this year and noted that surging energy prices have pushed up inflation, but core inflation remains moderate.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) will launch a tariff refund application portal on Monday to process refunds related to recent court rulings, with total refunds expected to be approximately $166 billion. Financial executives need to play a key role in document quality, cross-departmental coordination, and refund accounting treatment.