How to turn AI into your thinking partner

You're using AI wrong. Use these 7 prompts to make AI your strategic partner.

71% of CFOs can’t turn AI investments into profits.

Feel that frustration?

You’re not alone. Most CFOs treat AI like a fancy calculator, tossing out quick questions and expecting magic. But it doesn’t work that way.

AI’s real power is in partnership, not just spitting out answers. Imagine a partner that cuts through data chaos, spots risks, and sharpens your ideas, letting you lead with confidence and dominate your goals.

In today’s edition you’ll learn how to make AI your thinking partner.

Let’s dive in.

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The Partnership Mindset

Stop telling AI to just improve emails. That’s like hiring a brilliant advisor and asking them to make copies.

A partnership mindset means

• Sharing details

• Tweaking ideas

• Working together

• challenging your thinking

It’s a conversation, not a command.

Don’t just say, Give me a forecast.

Try:

Here’s my Q3 revenue draft. We’ve grown 15%, but competitors are cutting prices. What risks am I missing, and how should I tweak it?

This gets you sharp, tailored insights, not generic junk.

McKinsey’s 2024 survey shows companies with smart AI strategies get more value.

And Gartner says CFOs must lead AI plans to avoid wasting money.

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While most CFOs wait to adopt AI, I built a forecasting app in 5 minutes with ChatGPT 4.1 and shared it. It’s here:

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7 Prompts to Make AI Your Strategic Partner

Here’s how to make AI your strategic ally. Each approach is built for CFOs, with clear prompts to tackle your daily challenges:

1. Train AI to Think Like Your Company

Generic prompts = generic outputs. Personalize AI with your data.

Prompt:

Here’s how we operate:

- Business model: [describe]

- Metrics we track: [list]

- Our top risks: [list]

- Our goals this year: [list]

Save this context. Use it in all future answers unless I say otherwise.

Upload: Company overview, investor memo, OKRs, and KPI dashboards.

2. Make AI Surface Your Weaknesses

You’re too close to the plan to see the cracks. AI isn’t.

Prompt:

Here’s our current [financial plan / growth strategy]: 
[upload or describe].

Tell me:

- What looks overconfident?

- What assumptions need pressure testing?

- Where are we exposed and under-hedged?

Upload: Your growth plan or financial roadmap.

3. Make AI Challenge Your Assumptions

Every CFO has a few sacred cows. AI helps you kill them before the market does.

Prompt:

We’re planning to [strategic action]. The assumptions behind it are:

- [Assumption 1]

- [Assumption 2]

- [Assumption 3]

Play devil’s advocate. 

How could each one fail? What do I need to validate today?

Upload: Decision brief or strategy memo.

4. Align Stakeholders Without the Guesswork

Your strategy fails if you don’t speak everyone’s language. AI helps you translate.

Prompt:

We’re about to [action: raise prices / cut teams / expand markets].

Create:

- One message for employees

- One for the board

- One for customers

- One for internal finance team

Each message should anticipate objections and inspire confidence.

Upload: Strategy brief.

5. Use AI as a Capital Allocation Sounding Board

You’re choosing between hard trade-offs. AI helps make the invisible visible.

Prompt:

We’re considering these capital allocations:

1. [Option A: e.g., invest $5M into product]

2. [Option B: e.g., pay down debt]

3. [Option C: e.g., M&A opportunity]

Break down:

- Short- and long-term impact on cash, growth, and risk

- Hidden upside or unintended costs

- Which one aligns best with our north star: [e.g., free cash flow]

Upload: Capital allocation plan or long-range plan model.

6. Cut Headcount or Delay Product?

This is one of the hardest trade-offs. AI helps you evaluate without emotion.

Prompt:

We’re trying to hit [target: e.g., cash burn below $1M/month].

Options:

- Cut headcount in [functions]

- Delay [product initiative]

Walk me through:

- First-order financial impact

- Second-order operational risk

- Strategic signal this sends to the team and investors

Upload: Departmental budget, org chart, and cash flow plan.

7. Turn Numbers Into Board-Ready Stories

Data alone doesn’t influence. Stories do. Use AI to transform raw financials into narratives your board remembers.

Prompt:

Here is our [monthly P&L / quarterly forecast / cash flow report]

[upload or paste data].

Help me:

- Identify the story this data tells

- Pull out 2–3 compelling narrative angles

- Draft 3 headlines for a board deck

- Recommend one visual that would create urgency

Upload: Your P&L or forecast model (CSV/Excel), and optionally your board deck draft.

Try these prompts and make AI your thinking partner.

You can use ChatGPT 4.1, Grok or Gemini.

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Want to go deeper? Read this:

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3 CFOs Winning with AI

1. Yvonne McGill, CFO at Dell Technologies

McGill uses AI to predict supply chain needs, slashing costs and boosting profits. Dell Technologies has developed AI servers in collaboration with Nvidia, a three-year project that McGill describes as part of “the expansion of a portfolio to be inclusive of AI opportunities” and a key piece of Dell’s long-term strategy.

This initiative has enhanced Dell’s ability to capture growth in AI-driven markets, improving financial metrics like operating income.

2. Jill Klindt, CFO at Workiva

Klindt automates compliance reporting with AI at Workiva, ensuring perfect accuracy and building stakeholder trust. She emphasizes that “AI is transforming organizational processes and enhancing collaboration among CFOs, CSOs, and their respective teams.”

At Workiva, a SaaS company focused on financial reporting, Klindt’s AI initiatives streamline complex regulatory processes, saving time and improving reliability for clients and stakeholders.

3. Florian Zirnstein, CFO at Bayer Indonesia

Zirnstein treats AI as a “thought partner” at Bayer, using it to measure qualitative metrics like employee confidence. He has implemented 3 AI initiatives across Bayer Indonesia, inspired by his learnings from Section’s AI for Business Mini-MBA.

Zirnstein identified use cases by addressing team pain points, leveraging tools like ChatGPT, LLaMA, and Mistral in a secure environment. His approach focuses on value beyond traditional ROI, proving AI’s strategic power in pharmaceuticals.

These CFOs are thinking smarter with AI.

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CFOs loved this edition. Read it here:

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The Bottom Line

Imagine this: real-time data that gives you the edge in negotiations, predictive models that shield you from market chaos, and strategies so sharp they reshape your industry.

That’s the power of AI as your thinking partner.

But it’s up to you.

Drop the old make AI do tasks mindset.

Start collaborating. Share details, tweak ideas, and challenge your plans. The proof is undeniable: CFOs who partner with AI are transforming their companies.

Don’t wait for the right time. It’s now.

Your rivals aren’t pausing. They’re acting, innovating, and winning.

Every CFO has access to AI. But very few know how to think with it.

And that’s the difference. Between:

• Automating reports vs. uncovering the insight your CEO didn’t ask for yet.

• Writing decks vs. building strategy that sways the board.

• Playing defense vs. owning the room.

The CFOs who treat AI like a partner will win.

Not because AI is perfect. But because it sharpens your thinking, 100x your speed, and gives you a second brain on demand.

Don’t use AI to get answers. Use it to ask better questions.

So start now. Start messy.

And that’s all for today.

See you on Thursday!

P.S. 3 things CFOs aren't responsible for but CEOs think they are

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I’m Wouter Born. A CFOTech investor, advisor, and founder of finstory.ai

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