Good morning. CFOs are increasingly stepping into CEO roles. But in the AI age, the bigger question may be how long they’ll be able to stay there.
“AI is changing the CEO’s role—and could lead to a changing of the guard,” is a Fortune feature by my colleague Phil Wahba. He points out that Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, for example, has had an extremely successful run—12 years in the corner office—with shares rising about elevenfold during his tenure. Microsoft has also joined the elite group of companies valued above $3 trillion. But Wahba argues that Nadella won’t remain relevant or effective if he doesn’t stay on top of AI and its sweeping impact on the industry—and neither will his peers in any sector.
“This new reality is taking shape as several of the most high-profile Silicon Valley CEOs are extending their tenures into their second decades,” Wahba writes. They include 53‑year‑old Sundar Pichai (roughly 11 years as Google CEO and about seven years heading its parent, Alphabet) and Apple’s 65‑year‑old Tim Cook (14 years as CEO). “It’s becoming clearer that AI will play a major role in how much longer these CEOs remain at the top,” he writes.
Elsewhere in tech—and across the Fortune 500—such long tenures will likely become increasingly rare, at least during the early waves of the AI boom. Indeed, the numbers are already beginning to shrink. You can read the complete article here.
According to Crist Kolder Associates’ 2025 Volatility Report, CFO-to-CEO promotions among Fortune 500 and S&P 500 companies reached a decade high of 10.26% last year, up from 6.15% in 2015.
CFOs also often take on a president role as part of the CEO pathway. Michael J. Cavanagh joined Comcast Corporation as CFO in 2015, was promoted to president in 2022, and began his tenure as co‑CEO in January 2026, serving alongside Brian L. Roberts. Comcast is upgrading its technology over several years, using AI and machine learning and converting its network to software-based systems.
Kathleen L. Quirk was a longtime CFO at mining giant Freeport‑McMoRan Inc., before her promotion to president in 2021 and CEO in 2024. Freeport is actively deploying AI across its operations, including autonomous mining and predictive analytics, and ranked No. 31 on the Fortune AIQ 50 list of companies generating notable results with AI.
It seems CFOs who want to be CEO-ready in the AI era need to layer classic CEO traits—strategy, storytelling, and people leadership—on top of new AI skill sets. The CEO-ready CFO will blend digital intelligence, systems thinking, AI governance, change leadership, and a compelling narrative into a profile built not just to reach the top job, but to keep it.
Sheryl Estrada
sheryl.estrada@fortune.com
Leaderboard
James Chuong was appointed CFO of Atlassian Corporation (NASDAQ: TEAM), a software provider for team collaboration, effective March 30. Chuong brings more than 20 years of experience. Most recently, he served as CFO at LinkedIn. During his 13 years at LinkedIn, he held several finance leadership roles, leading global teams responsible for financial planning and analysis, business operations, international finance, and financial systems. Before that, Chuong worked in investment banking at J.P. Morgan, Citigroup, and Bank of America Securities.
Matt Peterson was appointed CFO of Branch, a workforce payments platform. Peterson's career spans accounting, investment banking, and finance leadership roles. He has advised and played a key role in taking multiple companies public, including guiding Fastly through its 2019 IPO. Peterson also held senior finance roles at Attentive Mobile and, most recently, served as CFO of Snappy, an enterprise gifting and rewards platform. At Branch, he will focus on establishing the foundation for the company's next phase of growth.
Big Deal
“Tech decisions can drive big earnings-per-share gains” is a research report by Deloitte. Researchers used a model that treats a company as an interconnected system, where decisions, behaviors, and results continuously influence one another over time.
In a typical S&P 500 company, the technology decisions leaders make about data, AI, IT budgets, and workforce capacity can materially reshape earnings per share (EPS) in just a few years, according to Deloitte. The model includes 63 variables—covering the technology estate, digital capabilities, and organizational readiness—and identifies 20 core variables that most strongly influence outcomes such as EPS. The report zeroes in on the digital investment decisions that can drive EPS growth, and the underlying capabilities required to sustain it.
Going deeper
"To date, very few companies have modified their incentives and reward programs at the leader, team, and individual levels to drive the right behaviors that accelerate AI adoption," Snyder writes. "The leadership conversation needs to move from, 'How do we deploy AI?' to 'How do we incentivize the right AI behaviors?'"
Overheard
"Will AI models become interchangeable commodities, or will they remain a source of durable competitive advantage? Apple appears to be betting on the former. If it is right, today’s restraint will look like foresight."
—Ioannis Ioannou, an associate professor of strategy and entrepreneurship at London Business School, writes in a Fortune opinion piece titled, "While big tech burns cash on AI, Apple waits."
