Good morning. There’s a rising physique of analysis and survey proof pointing to CFOs taking part in a significant position in creating value from AI. To realize extra perspective, I spoke with a CFO who can also be a former chief expertise officer.
Earlier this week in Washington, D.C., I had a dialog with Eimear P. Bonner, CFO of Chevron Company. Bonner has an enchanting background that led to the finance chief position. Since becoming a member of Chevron in 1998, she has held a number of key management roles throughout operations and technique, together with normal director of Tengizchevroil LLP in Kazakhstan. In 2021, she made historical past as Chevron’s first feminine chief expertise officer, and, in 2024, was promoted to CFO of the corporate, which ranks No. 21 on this 12 months’s Fortune 500.
CFOs, as monetary stewards of funding choices, even have the toolkit to assist enhance efficiency, Bonner advised me.
“We’re uniquely positioned to take a view on whether or not AI will create value or not,” she mentioned. Whereas AI presents a variety of potentialities, finance leaders play a vital position in figuring out which initiatives matter most and prioritizing them, she added.
From Bonner’s perspective, the important thing query shouldn’t be whether or not AI can do a job, however: “How can AI assist enhance efficiency or overcome what’s limiting efficiency?”
Internally, Chevron makes use of instruments together with Microsoft Copilot and Anthropic’s Claude. The finance group at Chevron has roughly 3,500 workers globally. Inside finance, some examples of AI use embody in investor relations to synthesize and analyze massive volumes of knowledge for insights. Additionally it is utilized in audit features to help SOX controls, in addition to in areas comparable to forecasting.
Bonner’s aim is to make sure that everybody within the finance perform is educated on efficient AI utilization. On change administration, she emphasised reframing the expertise: “Consider AI as your companion to glean extra insights.” AI adoption is already properly underway, each within the office and in on a regular basis life.
In her personal position, Bonner makes use of AI for knowledge synthesis and as a sounding board, and she or he is exploring constructing a private AI agent to deal with routine duties, comparable to making ready for talking engagements.
“Expertise is the air we breathe in an organization like Chevron,” Bonner mentioned. It underpins how the corporate extracts oil and gasoline and delivers merchandise the place they are wanted.
Chevron additionally runs an AI-focused program focusing on bold, high-impact “moonshot” tasks, notably in exploration and reservoir recoveries, usually in collaboration with expertise companions, she mentioned. The corporate has cataloged about 15 enterprise workflows and use instances for AI and superior analytics, together with ApEX, a proprietary AI instrument designed to enhance how Chevron discovers oil and gasoline assets.
For Chevron, the intersection of vitality demand and progress lies in powering knowledge facilities and partnering with hyperscalers, Bonner mentioned. Final 12 months, the corporate introduced a partnership with GE Vernova and Engine No. 1 to develop large-scale energy tasks for U.S. knowledge facilities.
Chevron’s enterprise-wide AI technique is intently overseen by senior management, together with CEO Mike Wirth, and Company Officers Jeff Gustavson and Ryder Sales space. As a part of this effort, the corporate has scaled the small “skunkworks” workforce stood up just a few years in the past and is supercharging use of AI throughout all value chains whereas constructing the brand new AI capabilities for all the workforce.
For Bonner, that shift captures the brand new mandate for finance chiefs: not simply funding AI experiments, however deciding the place the expertise actually creates value throughout the enterprise.
Sheryl Estrada
sheryl.estrada@fortune.com
Leaderboard
Brian Herb was appointed CFO of McAfee, a world cybersecurity firm. Herb brings greater than 20 years of economic and operational management expertise at high-growth firms. Most just lately, he served as CFO of CCC Clever Options. Previous to CCC, Herb spent greater than 20 years at Experian, rising to function CFO for Experian’s North American business. He started his profession at Ernst & Younger.
John McCauley was appointed CFO of Vanta, an automatic safety and compliance software program firm. McCauley brings greater than 20 years of expertise scaling high-growth software program firms. He joins Vanta from Calendly, the place he most just lately served as chief working officer and helped broaden the business to greater than 20 million customers throughout over 230 nations. He was beforehand CFO at Seismic. Earlier, he was in finance management at ServiceNow.
Large Deal
Just one in 4 workers really feel ready to make use of AI at work, although 86% are already utilizing AI instruments, in accordance with Skillsoft’s new Workforce Readiness Report: AI Version. Whereas 77% of leaders say their organizations have set employees up for AI success, the findings reveal a 53‑level readiness hole and level to late‑stage coaching, restricted expertise evaluation, and skinny governance as the principle causes adoption is outpacing help.
For instance, 69% of workers are “considerably” or “not very clear” on which expertise matter, in contrast with 43% of leaders who say they are very clear. When utilizing AI, each managers (51%) and particular person contributors (45%) rely on generative AI most frequently for analysis.
About 1 in 10 respondents say their group has complete AI governance—insurance policies, coaching, and ongoing oversight—at the same time as use of those instruments stays widespread at roughly 90%, in accordance with Skillsoft. The commonest state of affairs is casual steering that varies by workforce or supervisor, and for 21% of particular person contributors and 14% of managers, there isn’t any steering in any respect.
The findings are primarily based on responses from 2,000 international professionals.
Going deeper
Who’s #1 in crypto? Relies upon on the class. The brand new Fortune Crypto 100 ranks the highest 10 gamers throughout 10 classes—CeFi, DeFi, TradFi, stablecoins, mining, enterprise capital, and extra. Coinbase, Hyperliquid, Tether, and BlackRock every claimed a high spot. Discover the total rankings and methodology right here.
Overheard
“Leaders have to articulate a route that workers, traders, and prospects imagine in for this new future.”
—Carolyn Dewar, a senior companion at McKinsey & Firm, writes in a Fortune opinion piece. She is a co-author of A CEO for All Seasons: Mastering the Cycles of Management (2025).
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