87% of CFOs Want AI. Only 7% Can Prove It Works. A CEO Explains Why.
The Diary of a CFO with Wassia KamonOctober 15, 202600:50:20

87% of CFOs Want AI. Only 7% Can Prove It Works. A CEO Explains Why.

Alex Curran is the CEO of Aptitude Software, where she has spent 20 years working with some of the world's most complex finance organizations. She started in sales, built the company's entire North American operation from scratch, and now sits across the table from CFOs who are trying to close the gap between the finance function they have and the one their boards are demanding.

In this conversation, Alex shares a stat from Aptitude's own research: 87% of CFOs say AI will be important to their finance operations this year. Less than 10% can point to any measurable return. She explains why, and the answer is not about AI itself. It is about what sits underneath it. Batched data. Summarized records. Systems that were never designed to support real-time anything.

We talk about why legacy ERPs cannot be retrofitted for the AI era, the difference between AI-native and AI-enabled finance systems, and why putting AI on top of old architecture just makes the mess bigger, faster, and more expensive. Alex also breaks down the three conversations every CFO needs to have with their CEO, what a zero-day close actually requires, and where agentic AI is heading inside the finance function.

If you are a CFO evaluating your next technology decision, a finance leader trying to figure out where AI fits, or a CEO wondering why your finance team still cannot answer questions in real time, this episode will reframe how you think about the problem.

Connect with Alex Curran: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alex-curran-9aa593b/

---------------

👉 If becoming a CFO is in your 5-year plan, get your free CFO Readiness Scorecard here: http://thecfo.scoreapp.com

---------------
🎧 Listen to The Diary of a CFO Podcast on your favorite platform:

Apple Podcasts ▶️ https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-diary-of-a-cfo/id1768818749
Spotify ▶️ https://open.spotify.com/show/2w2bL55ST959GgeAR6r7So?si=1c710288beb84b3c

---------------
📲 *Connect with Host Wassia Kamon*
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/wassiakamon/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wassiakamon/

📲 *Follow The Diary of a CFO Podcast on social media!*
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-diary-of-a-cfo-podcast/
X (Twitter): https://x.com/thediaryofacfo?
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@csuitestories?

📬 *Get Involved*
Have a question or topic suggestion?
Email: Ask@thediaryofacfo.com


---------------
🎬 Video chapters:






------------

#WassiaKamon #TheDiaryOfaCFO # # #