• Home
  • Latest
  • Fortune 500
  • Finance
  • Tech
  • Leadership
  • Lifestyle
  • Rankings
  • Multimedia

Trendingnow

1

Jensen Huang made his $172 billion fortune on AI chips. His family's $75 million gift to Vanderbilt argues art decides what technology is for

2

The millennial generation has split, new Fed research shows: Those over 35 are edging toward boomer-style wealth, while everyone else falls behind

3

The $39 trillion U.S. national debt isn’t as high as Japan’s and Singapore’s relative to economy size—and yet it's still worse somehow

1

Jensen Huang made his $172 billion fortune on AI chips. His family's $75 million gift to Vanderbilt argues art decides what technology is for

2

The millennial generation has split, new Fed research shows: Those over 35 are edging toward boomer-style wealth, while everyone else falls behind

3

The $39 trillion U.S. national debt isn’t as high as Japan’s and Singapore’s relative to economy size—and yet it's still worse somehow
Conferenceschief financial officer (CFO)

How top CFOs are incorporating tech into their roles

Anne Sraders
By
Anne Sraders
Anne Sraders
Down Arrow Button Icon
Anne Sraders
By
Anne Sraders
Anne Sraders
Down Arrow Button Icon
June 21, 2021, 1:15 PM ET
From left: Kristina Salen, CFO, WWE; Tammy Romo, EVP and CFO, Southwest Airlines; Tania Secor, global CFO, R/GA; and Harmit Singh, EVP and CFO, Levi Strauss.
From left: Kristina Salen, CFO, WWE; Tammy Romo, EVP and CFO, Southwest Airlines; Tania Secor, global CFO, R/GA; and Harmit Singh, EVP and CFO, Levi Strauss.Photo illustration by Fortune from photographs courtesy of WWE, Southwest Airlines, R/GA, and Levis Strauss & Co.
Add Fortune on Google for similar content.

It’s becoming increasingly clear: Tech is in everything.

That includes in the role of the top finance job: the chief financial officer. And 2021’s CFOs need to be more tech-savvy than ever.

“Maybe 20 years ago, it was a department in the corner. It now permeates every aspect of your business, and every aspect of the finance function, so there’s lots of opportunities to learn,” Kristina Salen, the CFO of entertainment titan WWE, said at a Fortune virtual webinar last week.

Indeed, with so much big data, A.I., and robotics technology available for CFOs to utilize, learning and incorporating tech into the traditional finance role is key. But for those who don’t know quite where or how to dive in, Fortune’s panel of CFOs had a few tips from their experiences.

“I’d say be patient, test, and learn, and take your time,” said Harmit Singh, executive vice president and CFO at storied jeans brand Levi Strauss. At his own company, “we started small. I said to everybody, ‘We’ll help upskill you. We’re not replacing jobs, but we will help upskill you, and we will test our way into it.’”

Singh said he expected to have 90 bots used for robotic process automation (RPA) in use by now, but currently the company has 28. “It takes a while to convert our algorithm for financial forecasting,” he said, suggesting that CFOs need “to test, learn, and scale, and you have to work with folks by bringing them into your thinking and then learn as part of the process.”

“This is one way for us to help folks get more productive,” he added.

But that technological development doesn’t have to be at the expense of human jobs or creativity, argued Tania Secor, global CFO at advertising firm R/GA. “In the past, technology was counterintuitive to humanity,” she noted. But “our economy has changed,” Secor said, and “technology is complimentary and a facilitator to a more human future.” At R/GA, Secor said, she’s been smoothing the way for the firm to invest in A.I. to “facilitate the creative process, which is fascinating. I think we’re just on the cusp of that revolution.”

Others, like WWE’s Salen, argued that finance teams often struggle with “insularity” and suggested that “instead, [I] try to encourage [my team] to reach out and create their own networks and bring to me what are some of the best ideas, to really learn from each other. It’s a great way of creating almost like a competitive [atmosphere] among your teams in terms of innovation and wanting to be the best-in-class finance team in our industry,” bringing in ideas like potentially using adaptive software for forecasting to help teams innovate from within instead of having ideas always come from the top.

Meanwhile Tammy Romo, the executive vice president and CFO of Southwest Airlines, agreed that CFOs should “start small” with tech and grow from there. At Southwest, “we wanted to make sure that we did have good governance around these new technologies, particularly RPA,” she said. Romo said they have “a team that is working very tightly together—our controller, our head of supply chain, partnering with our head of innovation, as well as our continuous improvement team, really working in concert together to make sure that we have a good framework and a good governance structure,” she said.

One example of that RPA tech in use: automating parts of ticket refund transactions during the pandemic.

“We’re freeing up valuable time to work on really trying to solve problems and add value,” she said.

Subscribe to Fortune Daily to get essential business stories straight to your inbox each morning.

About the Author
Anne Sraders
By Anne Sraders
LinkedIn iconTwitter icon
See full bioRight Arrow Button Icon
Add Fortune on Google for similar content.

Latest from our Conferences

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025

Most Popular

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Fortune Secondary Logo
Rankings
  • 100 Best Companies
  • Fortune 500
  • Global 500
  • Fortune 500 Europe
  • Most Powerful Women
  • World's Most Admired Companies
  • See All Rankings
  • Lists Calendar
Sections
  • Finance
  • Fortune Crypto
  • Features
  • Leadership
  • Health
  • Commentary
  • Success
  • Retail
  • Mpw
  • Tech
  • Lifestyle
  • CEO Initiative
  • Asia
  • Politics
  • Conferences
  • Europe
  • Newsletters
  • Personal Finance
  • Environment
  • Magazine
  • Education
Customer Support
  • Frequently Asked Questions
  • Customer Service Portal
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms Of Use
  • Single Issues For Purchase
  • International Print
Commercial Services
  • Advertising
  • Fortune Brand Studio
  • Fortune Analytics
  • Fortune Conferences
  • Business Development
  • Group Subscriptions
About Us
  • About Us
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map
  • About Us
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map
  • Facebook icon
  • Twitter icon
  • LinkedIn icon
  • Instagram icon
  • TikTok icon
  • YouTube icon

Latest from our Conferences

At Fortune Brainstorm Tech 2026, Chris Bedi, Chief Customer Officer and Enterprise AI Advisor, ServiceNow; China Widener, Vice Chair and US Technology, Media & Telecommunications Industry Leader, Deloitte; and Phil Wiser, Chief Technology Officer, Paramount, speak on a panel with Kristin Stoller, Fortune editorial director.
NewslettersFortune Workplace Innovation
This tech CEO fired 80% of his workforce over AI resistance. Here’s what he’s learned since then
By Kristin StollerJune 15, 2026
1 month ago
Courtney Robinson, head of policy and communications, at Akoya speaks on a panel at Fortune Brainstorm Tech 2026.
RetailBrainstorm Tech
AI shopping agents are coming. No one is ready for them
By Jeremy KahnJune 12, 2026
1 month ago
The head of Claude Code hasn’t ‘written a line of code by hand’ in 8 months
ConferencesBrainstorm Tech
The head of Claude Code hasn’t ‘written a line of code by hand’ in 8 months
By Nick LichtenbergJune 11, 2026
1 month ago
Sarah Franklin, Chief Executive Officer of Lattice, and Francine Katsoudas, EVP and Chief People, Policy and Purpose Officer at Cisco, speak at Fortune's COO Summit with Kristin Stoller, Editorial Director at Fortune.
NewslettersFortune Workplace Innovation
AI disruption arrived 6 years early—now executives are drawing the line
By Kristin StollerJune 8, 2026
2 months ago
Fortune Brainstorm Tech 2026 livestream
ConferencesBrainstorm Tech
Fortune Brainstorm Tech 2026 livestream
By Fortune EditorsJune 8, 2026
2 months ago
dw
ConferencesCOO Summit
This CEO has had 6 major jobs in Silicon Valley: How Dennis Woodside built a career on saying yes to hard problems
By Nick LichtenbergJune 3, 2026
2 months ago

Most Popular

Jensen Huang made his $172 billion fortune on AI chips. His family's $75 million gift to Vanderbilt argues art decides what technology is for
Big Tech
Jensen Huang made his $172 billion fortune on AI chips. His family's $75 million gift to Vanderbilt argues art decides what technology is for
By Sydney LakeJuly 23, 2026
1 day ago
The millennial generation has split, new Fed research shows: Those over 35 are edging toward boomer-style wealth, while everyone else falls behind
Real Estate
The millennial generation has split, new Fed research shows: Those over 35 are edging toward boomer-style wealth, while everyone else falls behind
By Nick LichtenbergJuly 22, 2026
2 days ago
The $39 trillion U.S. national debt isn’t as high as Japan’s and Singapore’s relative to economy size—and yet it's still worse somehow
Economy
The $39 trillion U.S. national debt isn’t as high as Japan’s and Singapore’s relative to economy size—and yet it's still worse somehow
By Sasha RogelbergJuly 23, 2026
1 day ago
'The demographic dividend of the last 40 years is ending': J.P. Morgan says the world is running out of the two things that kept interest rates down
Economy
'The demographic dividend of the last 40 years is ending': J.P. Morgan says the world is running out of the two things that kept interest rates down
By Eleanor PringleJuly 24, 2026
11 hours ago
Spain lifted the World Cup, but the IRS still gets a cut of its $50 million pay day as players, coaches and refs all face complex U.S. “jock taxes”
Personal Finance
Spain lifted the World Cup, but the IRS still gets a cut of its $50 million pay day as players, coaches and refs all face complex U.S. “jock taxes”
By Joshua HongJuly 23, 2026
1 day ago
Current price of oil as of July 23, 2026
Personal Finance
Current price of oil as of July 23, 2026
By Joseph HostetlerJuly 23, 2026
1 day ago

© 2026 Fortune Media IP Limited. All Rights Reserved. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy | CA Notice at Collection and Privacy Notice | Do Not Sell/Share My Personal Information
FORTUNE is a trademark of Fortune Media IP Limited, registered in the U.S. and other countries. FORTUNE may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. Offers may be subject to change without notice.