Change is the only constant—and with the ongoing evolution of artificial intelligence, shifting regulatory and economic environments, and innovations in how we work, that "constant" is occurring at an unprecedented frequency. Last week, at the 2025 CFO Summit hosted by MIT Sloan School of Management, top finance executives including FedEx CFO John Dietrich and Hasbro CFO and COO Gina Goetter delved into these topics.

Today's CFOs know they must prepare for change, but with "black swan" events becoming increasingly frequent, that means preparing for "anything that could possibly happen," Dietrich said during a panel discussion at the summit.

Although finance executives' core task right now is navigating multiple risks while steering their companies toward growth, mature organizations are often "massive objects with tremendous inertia," noted Nelson Repenning, distinguished professor of organization studies at MIT Sloan, in his opening keynote on Thursday.

To effectively guide organizations through current and future changes, CFOs need to rethink their mindsets—from how teams are trained and interact, to the application of AI, to risk management strategies. At this conference outside Boston, CFOs, finance, and other business leaders explored how these changes are affecting their current roles, how they might reshape the CFO function in the future, and how finance executives can best prepare for such transformations.

Here are four key takeaways from the summit.

1. AI is in the spotlight, but practical applications remain unclear

AI remains the most prominent topic of discussion—although finance executives continue to experiment with and invest in the technology, the right use cases, especially in the finance function, still involve significant ambiguity.

Faced with a constant stream of AI tools claiming to improve enterprise workflows, CFOs need to ensure they can answer key questions—including truly clarifying "what counts as AI," said Jason Child, executive vice president and CFO of semiconductor company Arm Holdings, during a featured fireside chat. He noted that many current tools are "more automation than AI," so CFOs must see through the hype to understand the true nature of the technology.

When evaluating new AI tools that might be integrated into the business, CFOs need to ensure they fully understand the complete capabilities of these solutions—and where they fit within the finance function, and more importantly, where they don't.

Child offered an example: finance is "deterministic," while large language models are "probabilistic"—meaning LLMs will give you the most probable "correct number," but not necessarily the truly correct number. Therefore, CFOs must understand "where I can trust the LLM and where I can't." Additionally, another key question is: "How clean is your data?" Child added.

2. Social and narrative skills are rising in priority

AI itself has enormous potential, but the combination of "AI plus humans with strong analytical, interpretive, or creative abilities" holds even greater possibilities—a point emphasized repeatedly by CFOs at the summit. While AI may significantly reduce repetitive, time-consuming tasks on employees' plates, leadership's ability to attract and retain top talent remains critical in the AI era.

MIT professor Repenning noted in his keynote that the rise of AI has brought some long-standing process issues in companies into sharper relief. Large, mature organizations may have plans to use new tools to free up time and capital, but they often stumble at the change management stage—partly because their understanding of team workflows is not transparent.

"What happens when we manage a fundamentally dynamic world with essentially static processes?" Repenning asked. In the face of rapid change, the assumptions and forecasts companies make quickly become disconnected from real-world events and challenges, "and then what happens is, all the people who work for you—because they're smart, talented, and well-intentioned—they will work around those processes."

That's why strong social networking and narrative skills are becoming increasingly critical and sought-after qualities among employee populations—and CFOs themselves emphasized that such skills have played an important role in their careers. In a discussion about the increasingly diverse paths to the top finance role, panelists cited adaptability, a willingness to try new things, and honing narrative skills as key factors that helped them secure the CFO seat.

Marc Litz, CFO of Jama Software, said during a panel discussion that one of the biggest learning curves in his career was learning to tailor the financial story based on the audience. For example, when communicating quarterly results, CFOs face multiple different groups—including internal teams, the board, and external investors—"so the biggest subtlety in communicating those results is: the story is the same, but the depth of detail presented is completely different."

3. CFOs continue to expand into operational roles

As companies need to navigate an expanding matrix of risks—including persistent economic headwinds and regulatory changes—CFOs are increasingly becoming leaders entrusted with steering the ship. Combined roles such as CFO and COO, or CFO and president, are rapidly growing in number, and the level of responsibility finance executives hold for overall business strategy continues to rise.

Hasbro CFO and COO Gina Goetter said during a panel discussion that she doesn't view her role at the toy giant as two separate positions—rather, it's a blended role that happens to straddle the boundary between two complementary areas.

"There's really no operational decision that doesn't ultimately show up somewhere on the financial statements," Goetter said. She joined Hasbro from Harley Davidson, where she served as CFO and COO.

Scott Roe, who also holds both CFO and COO titles—he serves at Tapestry, the parent company of Coach and Kate Spade—noted that the viability of this role combination also depends on the personalities involved and the corporate culture. Roe himself has experience in supply chain and technology, so when the previous COO left, he naturally took on operational responsibilities.

However, to effectively fulfill both operational and financial duties, Roe emphasized the importance of great people: "You have to have a strong team of people, and you have to learn to delegate."

"The hardest lesson I've learned as a C-suite executive is—'You know the answer, but don't say it,'" he said during the panel, quoting a mentor. "You have to develop your people and let them run."

4. Confronting "black swan" shocks once again

Finance executives are accustomed to planning for best- and worst-case scenarios, especially given the rising frequency of so-called "black swan" events over the past few years. The increasing frequency of such events makes the ability to forecast quickly and accurately more valuable, but it also leads some CFOs to become accustomed to "expecting the unexpected"—and planning accordingly.

In fact, several finance executives at the summit noted that black swan events have become so common that they're difficult to distinguish from the routine challenges that emerge every day.

"At this point, what even counts as a black swan event?" Goetter asked during a panel discussion alongside Tapestry's Roe and FedEx CFO and EVP John Dietrich. Goetter's first CFO role was taking the top finance position at Harley Davidson in 2020, right at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic—an experience that taught her "you have to prepare a lot of scenarios, you have to be extremely agile, and you can't get paralyzed by analysis."

The rising frequency of black swan events has also brought supply chain issues to the forefront, FedEx's Dietrich said during the panel: "Ten years ago, you would never have heard the word 'supply chain' in the boardroom, and now it's a top priority."

Dietrich, a former lawyer who early in his career served as a litigation attorney at United Airlines, reflected on the events he used to list in "force majeure" clauses when drafting contracts—and noted that "virtually every item on that list" has actually occurred over the past two decades.

"My view is that we should expect that everything could happen and plan for it," he said.