Currently, corporate finance executives are still exploring the best application scenarios for generative AI and related technologies within their organizations. This topic not only requires them to re-examine the role of technology but also to balance it with talent needs. However, to achieve this goal, finance leaders must first change their perception of their own role in the overall business decision-making process—this is the view of Sultan Saidov, co-founder and CEO of the AI-driven talent platform Beamery.

"I believe the best CFOs are those who actively embrace cross-functional opportunities, working with CIOs, CEOs, and CHROs to create better insights and collaboration," Saidov said in an interview.

The Talent vs. Technology Debate

Saidov's thinking on executive collaboration and AI integration predates the recent explosion of large language models. A former employee of Deloitte and Goldman Sachs, he co-founded Beamery in 2015 with the aim of using technology to identify highly skilled employees. He recalled that the core idea behind the company's founding was: "Can we use AI—which at the time meant something very different from what it means now—to break down job tasks, going beyond job titles," to gain insight into what employees actually do.

A decade later, "the topic of work has taken on new nuances, as the question increasingly focuses on which tasks are performed by humans and which by technology," Saidov said.

The potential of generative AI continues to capture the attention of the C-suite, just as fields such as accounting face long-term talent shortages. As previously reported by CFO Dive, research from KPMG shows that the deployment of "agentic AI" solutions—tools that can perform tasks with minimal or no human oversight—is accelerating. Leaders are increasingly looking to such tools to cut costs and fill critical talent gaps, even as concerns over data quality and security continue to mount.

Meanwhile, another report from Challenger, Gray & Christmas found that technology-related factors have led U.S. corporate leadership to cut 20,000 jobs in the first half of 2025.

However, Saidov cautioned: "Technology itself does not perform skills; it either automates tasks or augments them." Therefore, how to properly evaluate and effectively utilize generative AI technology has become an increasingly prominent focus for finance executives in recent years. CFOs play a key role in deciding whether companies should invest funds in technology or hiring, and this need has become more urgent amid ongoing macroeconomic uncertainty and cost pressures.

"Especially in the past year, we've seen that the biggest pressure on CFOs is: most companies need to cut costs while also determining where to grow, how to grow, and where to invest in technology," Saidov said.

Asking the Talent Risk Question

To achieve the right balance, CFOs and their executive peers must consider not only financial risk but also "talent risk"—that is, "Do we have enough people capability, and the combined capability of people and technology, to achieve our goals?" as Saidov defines it.

However, gaining a full understanding of an enterprise's available capabilities depends not only on data: executives themselves also need to rethink the traditional boundaries between functions. For example, in the past, when it came to technology spending, it was typically the CIO or IT director who set the strategy, which was then handed to the CFO for financial analysis, and so on.

But now, this has evolved into a "more tripartite collaborative model." Saidov believes the entire C-suite needs to think about how to quantify which tasks should be performed by humans and which by technology. He specifically emphasized that executives must make these decisions in a way that minimizes risk.