At Fortune’s inaugural AIQ Summit on Thursday, Hari Gopalkrishnan, chief technology and information officer at Bank of America, and Sally Moore, chief client officer and co-head of market intelligence at S&P Global, described AI adoption as a discipline rooted in governance, data, and accuracy—not a race to attach the technology to every workflow. The discussion followed Fortune and ServiceNow’s release this week of the Fortune AIQ 75, an annual ranking of Fortune 500 companies generating measurable impact from AI.

At Bank of America, Gopalkrishnan said the company evaluates AI implementations across 16 risk dimensions, including privacy, bias, workforce implications and intellectual property. The starting point, he said, is not the model: “Start with the client need. Does AI actually answer the problem?”

“One of the biggest mistakes we see is rushing to AI as a solution when deterministic models can do the job just as well,” Gopalkrishnan said. The most expensive mistake may not be moving too slowly. It may be funding a sophisticated AI solution where simpler technology would yield a more reliable, lower-risk return.

When AI is warranted, he said, governance must be continuous: establishing guardrails, evaluating results and monitoring systems for unintended consequences. A fraud model that disadvantages certain demographic groups, or a chatbot that does not adequately serve customers with particular accents, creates customer, compliance and reputational risks—not merely a technology problem.

For S&P Global, the foundation is data. Moore said the company’s work with a major global bank demonstrates the operational value of combining proprietary intelligence, subject-matter expertise and implementation support. S&P Global helped the bank reduce its time to market by roughly sixfold and improve accuracy in work drawing on multiple data sets from about 60% to 98%, she said.

But accuracy alone is not enough. “You need to be able to ensure that you can source the original IP that’s informing some of those decisions,” Moore said. In high-stakes applications, the ability to trace an AI-generated output back to the underlying data and intellectual property is essential.

Have a good weekend.

Sheryl Estrada
Sheryl.Estrada@fortune.com

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Fortune 500 Power Moves

Dave Fox, CFO of Northern Trust Corporation (No. 317), has announced his retirement. Fox intends to remain in his role through the end of the first quarter of 2027 to support a transition period. Northern Trust plans to conduct an internal and external search for its next CFO. During this time, it is expected that Fox will continue to lead finance and work closely with Michael O’Grady, chairman and CEO, and the leadership team. Fox joined Northern Trust in 2012. Before becoming CFO, he held roles including president of global family and private investment offices and EVP and head of the Americas for corporate and institutional services. Before joining Northern Trust, Fox spent more than 25 years at JPMorgan.

The weekly Fortune 500 Power Moves column tracks Fortune 500 company C-suite shifts—see the most recent edition.

More notable moves this week:

John Vandemore was appointed EVP and CFO of Levi Strauss & Co. (NYSE: LEVI), effective Nov. 1. Vandemore succeeds Harmit Singh, who announced plans to retire in April and will remain chief financial and growth officer until Vandemore joins. Singh will then serve as a special advisor through Nov. 30 to support the transition. Vandemore joins Levi’s from Skechers U.S.A., where he spent the past nine years as CFO, overseeing the global finance organization as well as operations functions. Earlier, Vandemore was EVP and CFO of global brands and commercial sales at Mattel, CFO and treasurer of International Game Technology, and held finance and operating leadership roles at The Walt Disney Company, including CFO of Walt Disney Imagineering. 

Jennifer Hays was appointed CFO of Gunnison Copper Corp., effective Oct. 12, the mining company known for its flagship Gunnison Copper Project and Johnson Camp Mine in Arizona announced. She succeeds Fabio Rocha, who has served as interim CFO and will be promoted to senior director of accounting and reporting. Hays brings roughly 20 years of finance experience across the U.S. defense industrial base and government contracting. She most recently served as CFO of PacSci EMC, a defense and space company within Ralliant Corp. Before that, Hays spent about 17 years at Intel Corp. in senior finance roles.

Trent Ziegler was appointed CFO-designate of Cars.com, effective Oct. 19, and will formally succeed Sonia Jain as CFO on Nov. 6. Jain will remain an executive advisor through March 31, 2027, to support the transition. Ziegler joins Cars.com from fintech holding company FairSquare, where he was CFO. Before that, he spent more than a decade at online lending marketplace LendingTree, including three years as CFO and seven years leading investor relations and treasury. He began his career at Ally Financial.

Kathy Cherian was appointed CFO of David’s Bridal. Most recently, Cherian was CFO of Magnolia, where she oversaw finance across its retail, e-commerce, media, hospitality and consumer-products businesses. She previously spent more than a decade at Nike, including as CFO of Nike Canada and in global business-planning roles.

Rachita Sundar was appointed CFO of Zendesk. Sundar succeeds Julie Swinney, who has transitioned to chief administrative officer and executive sponsor of Zendesk’s Employee Service business. Sundar brings more than 20 years of finance and business-operations experience from technology companies including Microsoft Azure, HubSpot, and Qualtrics.

Ivica Maric will succeed Yves Müller as CFO and chief operating officer of Hugo Boss AG. Müller is leaving the managing board for personal reasons, stepping down at his own request effective Oct. 1. He has served as CFO since December 2017 and added the COO title in May 2022, during which time he helped lead the company's CLAIM 5 growth strategy. Maric, a Hugo Boss veteran since 2005, most recently served as executive vice president of business operations and will assume both roles upon Müller's departure.

Big Deal

A Bain & Company report estimates that AI could shift $4.7 trillion in global corporate profits from 2025 through 2035, more than triple the impact the firm attributes to the internet in roughly half the time. But Bain’s core argument is that the opportunity is not primarily about cost cutting. It estimates that about 75% of the projected profit shift will stem from innovation and competitive redistribution rather than productivity gains alone.

The report groups industries into four categories, ranging from companies supplying AI’s foundation, such as chips, cloud computing and data center infrastructure, to sectors where AI could reshape competitive dynamics or replace established delivery models. Bain’s message is that incumbents with proprietary data, customer relationships and a willingness to redesign workflows could be well positioned to capture value. Companies that treat AI as only a technology project, however, risk enabling competitors to seize the advantage instead.

Going deeper

Here are four Fortune weekend reads:

"The real story behind Red Lobster’s $20 Ultimate Endless Shrimp fiasco: How an American seafood icon lost its way" —Nick Lichtenberg

“GM’s Mary Barra says the EV transition is still the destination—even if the road is longer” —Alyson Shontell

"‘Europe needs to shed its naivety’: Vestas CEO Henrik Andersen on Chinese competition and the energy issue that keeps him up at night" —Sam Birchall

"In the high-stakes game of chicken between CEOs and states, who blinks first?" —Ruth Umoh

Overheard

"The humanitarian sector has spent decades solving some of the hardest operational problems on Earth. If AI can help us solve them better—carefully with the right guardrails, transparently, and with evidence to prove it—we shouldn’t apologize for using it. We should insist on it."

—Jeannie Annan, chief research and innovation officer for the International Rescue Committee, writes in a Fortune opinion piece.