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CFO Leans on AI as a "Thought Partner"
12 May
Summary
- CFOs are increasingly integrating AI into business strategy.
- Plaid's CFO uses AI as a sounding board for critical decisions.
- AI helps automate tasks and improve product development at Plaid.
CFOs are now actively involved in developing AI strategies, with Seun Sodipo, CFO at Plaid, highlighting AI's role as a business "accelerant." Sodipo leverages AI as a sounding board, a tool for challenging her assumptions, and identifying potential blind spots, which is invaluable for the multifaceted CFO role.
Plaid, a company facilitating connections between financial institutions and third-party apps, is positioning itself as foundational infrastructure for an AI-native financial system. Over 400 AI companies currently build on its platform, and AI represents 20% of new customers in 2025.
Internally, Plaid utilizes AI to enhance efficiency across departments like finance and legal. Employees experiment with AI, developing tools that answer common questions, summarize tasks, and support complex financial modeling, such as running thousands of Monte Carlo simulations. This internal adoption underscores AI's potential to not only speed up existing work but also to significantly improve the company's product offerings. Plaid reported exceeding financial expectations in 2025, surpassing $500 million in ARR in Q4 2025 with nearly 40% year-over-year revenue growth. The company also noted that more than half of Americans have used AI for financial tasks, with 86% finding it helpful.
