{"id":63728,"date":"2026-06-05T16:51:25","date_gmt":"2026-06-05T16:51:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/63728\/"},"modified":"2026-06-05T16:51:25","modified_gmt":"2026-06-05T16:51:25","slug":"openai-cfo-not-knowing-ai-tools-like-codex-is-now-a-dealbreaker-for-finance-hires","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/63728\/","title":{"rendered":"OpenAI CFO: Not knowing AI tools like Codex is now a dealbreaker for finance hires"},"content":{"rendered":"

Good morning. OpenAI CFO Sarah Friar<\/a> says AI tools like Codex are now becoming a baseline expectation in finance hiring, as the company works to secure enough computing power to meet rapidly rising demand.<\/p>\n

Speaking at the Liquidity Summit 2026<\/a> this week, Friar said the way OpenAI evaluates talent is changing alongside the technology it builds.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would never hire a finance person who didn\u2019t know how to use Excel, and I probably wouldn\u2019t hire a finance person today that doesn\u2019t know how to use a tool like Codex,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Codex is the company\u2019s AI coding agent for automating software and technical tasks through natural-language prompts. Knowledge workers now represent about 20% of Codex users and are growing more than three times as fast as other user groups, according to OpenAI\u2019s new report<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Friar\u2019s stance on considering AI skills in finance when hiring reflects a growing trend. Deloitte\u2019s\u00a0Finance Trends 2026 survey<\/a>\u00a0of more than 1,300 global finance leaders found that AI and automation skills are now their top priority for developing and sourcing new finance talent\u2014ranking ahead of traditional competencies like regulatory compliance and cost management.<\/p>\n

This shift in hiring expectations reflects a broader transformation in how finance work is done inside AI companies. As AI tools become more capable, the ability to effectively use them will be a defining skill for future finance professionals.<\/p>\n

That change is happening against the backdrop of a major constraint for OpenAI<\/a>: computing power.<\/p>\n

\u201cCompute is a very scarce resource at the moment,\u201d Friar said, describing demand as rising up a \u201cvertical wall\u201d that continues to outpace supply. She noted that even with aggressive infrastructure investment, OpenAI expects compute to remain tight into 2026.<\/p>\n

Compute refers to the processing power required to run and train AI models, including the underlying chips and systems that support AI services.<\/p>\n

Because of that shortage, Friar said OpenAI has had to invest heavily in infrastructure ahead of demand. The company previously faced criticism for its aggressive compute purchases, but she defended the strategy. \u201cThank God we did,\u201d she said, \u201cbecause in \u201926 we still won\u2019t have enough compute.\u201d<\/p>\n

She added that compute constraints extend far beyond chips alone. Energy supply, land availability, permitting speed, memory production, talent pipelines, and community relationships all play a role in whether AI infrastructure can scale quickly enough. Trust is part of the supply chain too, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really important there on the trust side, that we don\u2019t leave communities behind,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

Have a good weekend.<\/p>\n

Sheryl\u00a0Estrada
sheryl.estrada@fortune.co<\/a><\/p>\n

LeaderboardFortune 500 Power Moves<\/p>\n

\u2014Eva C. Boratto\u00a0was appointed EVP and CFO of\u00a0Cencora, Inc. (No. 10<\/a>), effective June 29. Boratto succeeds\u00a0James F. Cleary, who will be retiring from his role as previously announced. Cleary will serve in an advisory role through the end of 2026. Boratto brings financial and operational experience across the healthcare and consumer sectors. She most recently served as CFO of Bath & Body Works, Inc., and previously spent 12 years at CVS Health Corporation, where she held leadership roles, including CFO, and played a key role in the integration of the company’s acquisition of Aetna.<\/p>\n

\u2014Ling Hai, president of Asia Pacific, Europe, Middle East and Africa at\u00a0Mastercard\u00a0(No. 141<\/a>), will become CFO, effective Aug. 3. Hai brings broad operating experience across international markets, deep knowledge of customers and products, and a strong commercial perspective to the role. He succeeds CFO\u00a0Sachin Mehra, who will move into a newly created role as chief business officer, responsible for country operations across the globe. Mehra will also be responsible for sales enablement, global partnerships, and digital commercialization under a single global go-to-market leadership structure.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Every Friday morning, the weekly Fortune 500 Power Moves column tracks Fortune 500 company C-suite shifts\u2014see the most recent edition<\/a>.<\/p>\n

More notable moves this week:<\/p>\n

Rob Livingston\u00a0was appointed CFO of\u00a0Nubank<\/a>, a digital banking platform, effective July 13. He succeeds Guilherme Lago, who is transitioning to the role of special advisor, after five years as CFO. Lago will support the transition through Aug. 31. Livingston brings more than 30 years of experience. He joins Nubank after more than 12 years at Visa, where he recently served as CFO for North America. He also led corporate finance and investor relations for Visa, Inc., served as CFO for Visa Europe and board member of Visa Europe Limited. Before Visa, Livingston spent 18 years at Capital One.<\/p>\n

Shannon Nash was appointed CFO and COO of\u00a0Vibrant Planet,<\/a> a technology company providing wildfire risk management software.\u00a0Nash brings more than 30 years of finance and operations experience across high-growth technology companies, including roles as CFO at Wing (Alphabet\u2019s drone delivery subsidiary), Reputation.com, and Insidesource.\u00a0Nash joins Vibrant Planet at a pivotal point in its growth as the company scales partnerships across the country.<\/p>\n

Nate Olmstead\u00a0was appointed CFO of\u00a0The Trade Desk<\/a>\u00a0(Nasdaq: TTD), a global advertising technology company, effective July 9. Olmstead joins from Penguin Solutions, an AI infrastructure and technology solutions company, where he was SVP and CFO. Before that, he served as CFO of Logitech International S.A., a multinational company. He also held a number of financial leadership roles during his 16 years at Hewlett Packard Company and Hewlett Packard Enterprise.<\/p>\n

Sri Maddipati\u00a0was promoted to EVP and CFO of\u00a0CMS Energy<\/a>\u00a0(NYSE: CMS) and Consumers Energy, its primary business, effective June 3.\u00a0Maddipati joined CMS Energy in 2014 and was elected as VP and treasurer in 2016, a position he held until he moved to the role of Consumers Energy VP of electric supply in 2023. He was appointed Consumers Energy SVP and president of the electric supply business unit in 2025. Before joining CMS Energy, he was a VP in\u00a0the financial institutions group at Goldman Sachs.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Scott Humphrey\u00a0was appointed CFO and treasurer of\u00a0Stoneridge, Inc.<\/a>, a global supplier of electronic systems and technologies. Humphrey has 25 years of experience. Most recently, he served as CFO at Fox Factory Holding Corporation, a designer and manufacturer of specialty sports and on- and off-road vehicles.\u00a0Before that, Humphrey served as interim CFO at Hibbett Sports and previously held the CFO role at Ciner Resources LP.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Big Deal<\/p>\n

E*TRADE from Morgan Stanley\u2019s monthly analysis gauges clients’ behavior in May. The sectors with the most net-buying activity were consumer staples (+8.15%), utilities (+5.92%), and industrials (+1.02%)\u2014the same ones that led in April.<\/p>\n

Real estate (-4.52%), energy (-4.50%), and health care (-2.08%) experienced the most net selling. “While the buying in consumer staples appeared to have a defensive element, much of the activity in utilities was in energy providers with ties to the AI data center buildout,” according to Chris Larkin, managing director of trading and investing. “And in addition to selling into modest strength in the health care sector, clients were also net sellers\u2014although not aggressively\u2014of the month\u2019s strongest sector, tech.”<\/p>\n

\"\"Courtesy of E*TRADE
\nGoing deeperHere are four\u00a0Fortune\u00a0weekend reads:<\/p>\n

“These Fortune 500 companies are bigger than most national economies\u2014here\u2019s where they\u2019d rank as countries<\/a>” \u2014Catherina Gioino<\/p>\n

“Melinda French Gates is betting $215 million on women\u2019s health\u2014and daring her fellow billionaires to follow<\/a>” \u2014Emma Hinchliffe<\/p>\n

“Social Security faces a 24% cut in 2032\u2014that\u2019s a $345 billion hit to retirees nationwide, watchdog says<\/a>” \u2014Nick Lichtenberg<\/p>\n

“Chipotle COO calls hiring one of the \u2018most painful processes\u2019\u2014so his AI bot \u2018Ava Cado\u2019 cut it from 12 days to 4<\/a>” \u2014Preston Fore <\/p>\n

Overheard<\/p>\n

\u201cIf my education and career paths were lines on a graph, they wouldn\u2019t trend neatly upward. There would be spikes, dips, line breaks, maybe a couple of loops.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2014Allison Danielsen, CEO, Tallo, a digital career platform, writes in a Fortune opinion piece<\/a>, \u201cMy wrist injury derailed my college plans. It\u2019s why I\u2019m a CEO today.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Good morning. OpenAI CFO Sarah Friar says AI tools like Codex are now becoming a baseline expectation in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":63729,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[872,869,871,870,873,875,879,874,876,877,157,572,880,878,881,882],"class_list":["post-63728","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-openai","tag-ceo","tag-ceos","tag-cfo","tag-cfos","tag-chief-financial-officer","tag-chief-financial-officers","tag-everette-taylor","tag-finance-chief","tag-kickstarter","tag-kickstarter039s-new-finance-chief-is-ultra-extroverted-and-she-credits-that-trait-to-her-success-as-a-people-centric-cfo","tag-openai","tag-people","tag-people-centric","tag-sindy-wilson","tag-talent","tag-tech-company"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63728","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=63728"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63728\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/63729"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63728"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63728"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63728"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}