Good morning. AI is escaping the screen, and that should be setting off both alarms and opportunities in the finance function.
Deloitte’s new CFO Guide to Tech Trends 2026 explores how finance leaders can think strategically about emerging technologies and embrace what’s possible, which in turn elevates their function’s value and helps shape what’s next for their entire organization.
One tech trend on the rise is AI-enabled robotics. AI is no longer confined to dashboards and copilots. “Physical AI,” which is the convergence of AI with robotics, sensors, and real-world systems, marks a turning point. As Deloitte notes, intelligence is becoming “embodied” in factories, warehouses, and supply chains, where autonomous systems can optimize operations in real time. For example, BMW is testing humanoid robots to handle tasks that traditional industrial robots cannot perform, according to Deloitte. Meanwhile, the Bank of America Institute projects that the material costs of a humanoid robot could fall from $35,000 in 2025 to between $13,000 and $17,000 by 2035.
Why should CFOs care about AI-driven robots? According to Deloitte’s report, they directly affect both costs and ROI. Adopting physical AI can reshape products, operations, and supply chains, influencing everything from manufacturing to quality control. Finance leaders must ensure these changes are accurately reflected in KPIs and financial reporting to drive competitive advantage. At the same time, CFOs need to strengthen how they measure ROI in a hybrid human–AI workforce and invest in upskilling finance teams to understand and manage the financial implications of this technology.
But physical AI is just one piece of a broader transformation. Deloitte highlights a surge in agentic AI, systems that don’t just analyze but act, alongside a resurgence in hardware investment, as AI workloads demand specialized infrastructure. These shifts introduce new cost structures, including rising energy consumption and capital intensity, placing CFOs at the center of critical trade-off decisions.
The finance function’s role is expanding from measuring performance to shaping the technological bets that will determine it.
Sheryl Estrada
[email protected]
Leaderboard
Rob Cooper, CFO of David’s Bridal, has stepped down after 20 years of service at David’s, after overseeing transitions to the interim CFO. David’s has initiated a search for a new CFO to help scale the company’s growth strategy and support continued expansion of the “Aisle to Algorithm” platform across both B2C and B2B initiatives.
Meir Peleg was appointed CFO of IceCure Medical Ltd. (Nasdaq: ICCM), developer of minimally invasive cryoablation technology, effective May 17. Peleg is a seasoned public company CFO with over 20 years of financial leadership. He has led a Nasdaq IPO and multiple large-scale capital raises, while scaling global industrial-tech organizations.
Big Deal
The research report, The Board’s AI Moment, from Protiviti and BoardProspects, is the third annual global board governance survey of 772 board members and C-suite executives assessing how boards oversee AI strategy, governance, and value creation. On average, 26% of corporate boards discuss AI at every board meeting.
In 63% of organizations reporting high AI ROI, every board meeting agenda includes a discussion on AI. By comparison, only 13% of low-ROI organizations report the same level of board engagement. In addition, 93% of high-ROI organizations express confidence in their responsible AI strategy.
As AI moves from experimentation to enterprise-wide deployment, the board’s role is becoming more consequential. But it can vary significantly based on board composition, committee structure, industry dynamics, organization size, and whether management treats AI as a strategic priority, according to the report.
Going deeper
Larry Fink, CEO of BlackRock, a leading global asset manager and technology provider, released his annual chairman’s letter to shareholders on Monday. “Every year, this letter reflects conversations I’ve had with clients, employees, CEOs, and policymakers around the world,” Fink wrote in a LinkedIn post.
AI is a central topic in the letter. Fink notes that the technology is advancing at a remarkable pace but warns that, if not managed carefully, it could deepen wealth disparities.
Fink writes: “The vast majority of wealth has flowed to people who owned assets, not to people who earned most of their money by working. Since 1989, a dollar in the U.S. stock market has grown to more than 15 times the value of a dollar tied to median wages. Now AI threatens to repeat that pattern at an even larger scale—concentrating wealth among the companies and investors positioned to capture it.”
Overheard
“Gen Z is not unemployable. They are knocking on locked doors. The task before us is to reopen them — and to make sure that a shot at the middle class doesn’t become a relic of the past.”
—Janelle Jones, senior fellow at the Groundwork Collaborative and Nia Law, a research associate, write in a Fortune opinion piece titled, “The entry-level job market is the worst it’s been in 37 years. Stop blaming Gen Z.” Jones is a former chief economist at the Department of Labor.
