CFOs Pivot From Historians to Strategic Architects as AI Reshapes Finance Function

Chief financial officers are abandoning their traditional role as corporate historians in favor of real-time decision-making powered by artificial intelligence, marking a fundamental shift in how finance departments operate within their organizations.

The transformation reflects a broader rethinking of the CFO's mandate—one where backward-looking reports give way to forward-looking analysis, and where finance teams become the architects of company-wide decision frameworks rather than mere documentarians of past choices. For finance leaders navigating an unpredictable macro environment, AI tools are emerging as the mechanism to deliver what Brian Unruh, CFO at AI services company ABBYY, calls "a single source of company-wide truth."

"The CFO role has evolved from being a historian, looking at and delivering dated reports, to becoming a strategic partner in decision-making and not just documenting that decision-making," Unruh said in a recent interview with PYMNTS. "This evolution has been driven by technological advancements, changing market dynamics, and an increasing need for sustainable growth."

The shift represents more than rhetorical repositioning. Finance departments are retooling around what Unruh describes as the need to provide "timely, accurate, and multidimensional data" to the rest of the business on a daily basis—a cadence that would have been unthinkable in the era of monthly close cycles and quarterly board decks. That real-time capability, he argues, is what "ultimately helps define and accelerate internal growth drivers" inside companies.

The practical applications reveal how AI is changing the day-to-day work of finance teams. Unruh points to AI systems that analyze customer behavior to predict potential churn, allowing finance teams to take preemptive measures before revenue erosion becomes visible in the numbers. Similarly, AI-driven analytics can identify bottlenecks in processes like sales enablement and cash collection, helping to streamline operations and improve cash flow before problems cascade.

"Technology, especially AI, has accelerated the success of finance teams by providing real-time access to data and insights," Unruh noted. "This allows us to proactively address issues before they become significant problems, rather than just reporting on them after the fact."

The implications extend beyond the finance department itself. Where decision-making was once siloed—with different departments focusing on their specific metrics in isolation—Unruh describes a shift toward what he calls "a more holistic approach, looking at the entire value chain to understand how different areas impact" one another. (The interview excerpt cuts off mid-sentence, but the direction is clear: finance is becoming the connective tissue between previously disconnected parts of the organization.)

For CFOs, the message is straightforward: the job description has changed. "The finance department exists to fuel decision frameworks," Unruh said—a formulation that reframes finance not as a support function but as the engine of organizational intelligence. In this model, generative AI tools and data analytics become the infrastructure that allows finance leaders to move from documenting decisions to driving growth.

The question for finance leaders is no longer whether AI will reshape their function, but whether they're building the capabilities to operate in real-time rather than in retrospect. As Unruh's comments suggest, the CFOs who thrive will be those who embrace their role as strategic architects—using AI to provide the multidimensional, instantaneous insights that modern decision-making demands.