The CFO Leadership Lens

The CFO Leadership Lens newsletter offers timely insights, market intelligence, and strategic perspectives for CFOs and senior finance leaders. Our goal is to support financial executives in navigating complexity, driving performance, and shaping resilient, future-ready organizations.

In this edition, we explore three priorities for CFOs entering the 2026 planning season: balancing AI with human judgment in budgeting, managing data as a strategic product, and using year-end planning as a platform to mentor next-generation finance talent. This issue was prepared by Paul Dennis, on behalf of Boyden’s Financial Officers Practice.

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For many companies, the end of summer signals the beginning of the 2026 planning process.  Over the next few weeks, CFOs will work with business leaders to agree on the right set of strategic growth investments while modeling cost and revenue targets and aligning sound business goals. In this quarter’s CFO Leadership Lens, we highlight three important considerations for finance leaders as they head into planning season.

Integrate AI, But Keep Budgeting Human

New technology, particularly AI-driven analytics, is transforming business planning processes by enabling faster and more comprehensive forecasting, scenario modeling, and real-time cost and growth visualization. These tools allow finance teams to evaluate risks, test assumptions, and allocate resources with far greater speed and precision than traditional spreadsheets. Yet, to achieve effective business outcomes, CFOs can not rely on data alone. In spite of all their processing power, AI-driven budgets can not yet properly reflect organizational culture, values, or competitive strengths.  This means that as finance processes continue to evolve and become more automated, it remains essential for CFOs to preserve space for conversation, debate, and judgment.  Data should inform rather than dictate decisions, and budgets should remain analytically rigorous yet grounded in human judgment.

Manage Data as a Product

Despite its potential to unlock trapped revenue, improve operational resilience, and strengthen decision-making, data remains one of the most underused strategic assets in business. As more CFOs start to recognize data as an asset comparable to intellectual property, finance leaders must lead the mindset shift to manage data as a product.  This shift may require a review of data governance to ensure quality, accessibility, and regulatory compliance, as well as the creation of clear stewardship roles and practices that focus on business outcomes. Furthermore, investments in advanced security, including zero-trust architectures and AI-driven threat detection are essential to protect sensitive information and, in their own right, can be measured as a driver of growth, resilience, and long-term differentiation.

Use Year-End Planning to Mentor Next Generation Finance Talent

As year-end activities intensify, CFOs have a unique opportunity to turn these high-stakes moments into growth and mentoring opportunities for their teams. Bringing high-potential finance talent to site visits, customer meetings, or investor briefings helps future leaders connect financial governance to broader business strategy. Most senior leaders reflect on formative moments in their careers when they were given the chance to operate at a higher level and remember the leaders who provided that platform. While long days may lie ahead, there is no better time to give the next generation of finance talent room to grow. Experienced CFOs understand the importance of ensuring these opportunities occur while also investing their own time in personally coaching and mentoring their most critical future talent. 

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