AI is coming for this CFO. (ft. OnlyCFO)

OnlyCFO and AI CFO Office share painful truths every CFO must hear at least once.

AI CFO Office

and

OnlyCFO

May 04, 2025

Your board deck builds itself.

Your AI agents monitor every KPI in real time.

Your variance commentary drafts overnight.

And your CEO still wants you in the room because you’re not just reporting the past. You’re framing the future.

That’s the CFO who kept their seat.

The tools are available. The gap is mindset. If your team isn’t experimenting, you’re already behind. — OnlyCFO

Now rewind to today.

Most CFOs are still asking the wrong question: Will AI replace me?

But the real threat isn’t AI. It’s the CFO next to you:

The one turning data into direction.
The one turning finance into strategy.
The one using AI better, faster, and smarter.
The one turning automation into an advantage.

This edition isn’t theory. It’s a survival kit for CFOs.

You won’t find polished Gartner slides here.

I teamed up with OnlyCFO to pull back the curtain and give CFOs insider-level strategies and brutal truths most won’t say out loud.

Why great numbers aren’t enough anymore.
3 Silent Killers of CFO Influence.
OnlyCFO explains how CFOs can push AI.
The bottom line

Read on.

Why Great Numbers Aren’t Enough Anymore

In all the important ways, the role of the CFO hasn't really changed - strategic storytellers that guide the business to where it needs to go. But...CFOs embracing all the technology advancements will be able to fill that role MUCH more effectively. — OnlyCFO

In 2015, delivering clean, accurate financials made you a hero.

But today, you must turn numbers into stories.

Speed + Insight + Story = Influence.

Data is abundant. Context is rare.

Your CEO and board don’t just need “what happened.”

They need:

What it means.
Why it matters.
What to do next.

If you can’t connect those dots in 5 minutes and emotionally influence.

Someone else will.

And you’ll quietly fade into being a back-office function, no matter how sharp your spreadsheets are.

3 Silent Killers of CFO Influence

Here’s how even good CFOs lose power:

1. Worshipping Precision Over Persuasion

Nobody cares about precision if they can’t understand the story.

In a world drowning in data, clarity wins.

If your CEO, after hearing your presentation, can't explain it back in one breath. You didn’t simplify enough.

Finance isn’t just about being right.

It’s about making right decisions happen.

The core job of the CFO hasn't really ever changed. But the tools available to make them better and faster at their job have changed. Finance teams that adopt the new tools will be able to run laps around those that don't and they will do it MUCH more efficiently. — OnlyCFO

2. Reacting Instead of Shaping

Old CFO:

Here’s what happened.

New CFO:

Here’s where we’re heading and here’s how we win.

Adaptability is the #1 skill of 2025. CFOs who adapt to AI, automation, and market shifts won't just survive, they'll lead. — OnlyCFO

The reactive CFO becomes a historian.

The proactive CFO becomes a strategist.

Speed of reaction isn't enough.

Speed of prediction wins.

3. Losing Control of the Story

If Finance doesn’t own the financial narrative, guess who does?

Sales, spinning why missed targets weren’t their fault.
Marketing, promising moonshots without financial anchors.
The board, reading between your lines and misinterpreting.

Whoever frames first wins the game.

No narrative = no influence.

A LOT of processes that accountants/FP&A folks were doing just one year ago looks archaic today to those people familiar with AI capabilities. I have seen many examples of this where the month-end close process should be 2+ days shorter or FP&A teams are 30% overstaffed based on current tools available. — OnlyCFO

From Number-Cruncher to Storyteller

It's not really about the CFO figuring out how to use AI in their workflows (although that is also important), but the CFO being an AI champion and pushing AI across the organization. It's only when the entire finance org is embracing AI and figuring out new ways to use it that there is a material impact. — OnlyCFO

Here’s the truth no one tells you:

Facts don’t move organizations.
Feelings about facts do.

When a CFO stands up and rattles off KPIs?

Nobody remembers.

When a CFO frames

The struggle
The stakes
The path to win

Everyone listens.

Great CFOs use

Visuals
Analogies
Stories
Even memes (yes, seriously — Apollo Global embeds them in earnings decks)

Not because it’s cute. Because it works.

OnlyCFO explains how CFOs Can Push AI

Using AI should be in everyone’s goals.
Hire an AI before you ask to hire a human.
Re-evaluate all processes to determine how you should change because of AI advancements.
Hiring interviews and performance reviews should incorporate AI literacy/adoption.
Re-evaluate your tech stack. Can new AI tools make things more efficient?

AI is obviously not perfect, but the problem is that your finance team doesn’t know what tools are out there because they haven’t spent enough time experimenting with AI.

The Bottom Line

When we have AGI then maybe AI will replace all of us. But until then, those that embrace new technology will be the ones that keep their jobs, get promoted, and help companies maximize value. Just worrying about when AI will take over isn't useful. — OnlyCFO

You have choices:

Be the CFO who uses AI, frames the future, and leads from the front.
Or be the CFO automated into the background while someone else takes your seat.

AI isn’t the threat. Complacency is.

The next 3 years won’t reward hard work alone.

They’ll reward:

Faster thinking.
Clearer framing.
Bigger storytelling.
Deeper strategic plays.

The future belongs to CFOs who rise into it.

Not the ones who get dragged by it.

P.S. A huge thank you to OnlyCFO for collaborating on this edition. He writes one of the sharpest newsletters on finance + operations in tech.

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I’m Wouter Born. A CFOTech investor, advisor, and entrepreneur.