For CFO Anand Krishnamurthy, one of his first experiences with AI was in fall 2023 when he turned to ChatGPT to craft his resignation letter. “I was very emotional when I was quitting General Electric after 20 years,” he said. “I leveraged AI because I wanted to take my emotions out of it.”
From amusing, relatable anecdotes like Krishnamurthy’s to more technical explorations through educational programs, the 2025 Bay Area CFO Forum panel was filled with insightful gems of experience shares and practical takeaways that the room of nearly 50 area CFOs could learn and immediately deploy to their own teams.
Century Group’s inaugural event was co-sponsored by BPM, Marsh and Mercer—with a goal of creating an intimate environment for regional finance leaders to convene, network and gain a deeper understanding of how their peers are not only adopting AI tools in their roles but also address the risks that come with exploring these types of tools.
“My biggest concern for entry-level workers is relying too much on AI,” said panelist and CXAI CFO, Joy Mbanugo. “Pick your favorite accounting pronouncement or tax code… I’m going to go to ChatGPT for commentary about it, but then I’m going to question it and go back to the source.”
Fellow panelists East Bay Logistics CFO, Vick Anand, and Life360 CFO, Jayant “Jay” Sood agreed on this issue, noting the importance of retaining the credibility required for the profession. Still, when it comes to the future of accounting and finance—or any industry, really—AI is something to engage with and a skill set CFOs should encourage their teams to develop; not fear.
“It’s absolutely critical to not only have that level of discovery and intellectual curiosity, but it’s also becoming somewhat of a requirement in hiring,” said Sood. In fact, Anand believes it’s leadership’s responsibility to usher in an environment around learning and exploring AI’s capabilities in the workplace.
"I think being in a CFO seat, you're kind of steering the boat," he said. "Starting with corporate is important, right? Creating a hype around it, getting people excited and incentivizing them to complete a project—from inception of an idea to development and scaling... Another thing is to give the tools to the people and putting guidelines around it, saying how and when to use it."
