Artificial intelligence has quickly shifted from a back-office experiment to a boardroom priority—especially in the Office of Finance. In a recent fireside chat, Christopher Witt, Director of Product Marketing at Trintech, sat down with John Thompson, Senior Vice President and Principal at The Hackett Group, to discuss how CFOs and finance leaders can responsibly harness AI.

Below, we break down the key takeaways from their conversation.

1. Why CFOs Are Now at the Center of AI Governance

Traditionally, AI governance lived within IT and legal departments. But as Thompson noted, Generative AI is different because it “is able to permeate every process of the organization”, making it a CFO-level concern.

Witt added that bias, transparency, and auditability are now “constantly on the controller’s mind, on the CFO’s mind—things that really influence not just financial reporting but financial controls.”

2. AI Agents and Governance: Easier Than Governing People?

One of Thompson’s more provocative insights was that AI agents may actually be easier to govern than people:

“If you have all these materials [policies, procedures, documents] and you put them around a model, you can govern that model at any level you want… My theory is that agents or electronic workers are easier to govern than people.”

By consolidating governance into a single repository and applying finance’s existing rigor, Thompson argued that AI can be tightly controlled and aligned with regulatory expectations.

3. Risk Management and Regulatory Alignment

While many CFOs worry about “black box” AI, Thompson stressed that finance teams still hold significant control:

“You can wrap a model with all these policies and procedures… and inject prompts into the model that say, explain everything you’re doing.”

On regulation, he reassured finance leaders:

“The EU AI Act is very much patterned on GDPR… GDPR didn’t end the world, and the EU AI Act isn’t going to end your ability to do anything comprehensive or valuable with AI.”

The key, he explained, is collaboration across finance, IT, legal, and audit teams to define clear boundaries and document decisions transparently.

4. Rethinking KPIs in the Age of AI

AI’s impact goes beyond automation—it’s reshaping how performance is measured.

Thompson cautioned against unrealistic expectations:

“I’m not one that’s saying you’re going to get to an instantaneous close through GenAI… But I do think GenAI has an ability to help us shorten that window from 18 days to five days.”

He also highlighted new metrics:

“A new metric you’re going to add in is the number of compute cycles by agents.”

For many organizations, KPIs like exception handling will all but vanish as AI resolves the “long tail” of repeatable issues, freeing human effort for only the rarest cases.

5. The Future Role of the CFO

The conversation underscored how AI is redefining finance leadership. Traditionally, the CFO has been, as Thompson described, a “rear-view mirror kind of position.” But AI opens the door for forward-looking analysis, scenario planning, and real-time insights.

“When people show up and say, I’d like to understand the financial position at close time, the answer could be, give me 15 minutes, instead of, wait for seven days.”

As Witt noted, this marks a cultural shift: “It’s almost like AI… isn’t going to be the panacea, but it’s a tool to allow us to never be closing.”

6. Advice for CFOs Starting Their AI Journey

For leaders who feel under-equipped, Thompson’s advice is clear:

“The CFO… needs to go make best friends with the AI team or the data science team. Cross-department collaboration and mutual time invested in GenAI initiatives is really the magic sauce that drives value realization.”

And when it comes to getting started with measurement:

“Start tracking your use of GenAI-enabled processing or agentic workflows—including where they’re being used, how they’re being used, and how much they’re being used.”

Final Thoughts

As Witt concluded, finance leaders can no longer afford to sit on the sidelines when it comes to AI. With challenges ahead in both staffing and compliance, early adoption is not just a competitive advantage—it’s a necessity.

This conversation underscored that the future of finance is not about “always closing” but rather about never needing to close—with AI empowering CFOs to deliver real-time insights, safeguard compliance, and drive strategic value across the business.

Written by: Nicole Tallman