Good morning, CFOs. Tapestry finance chief Scott Roe describes how the fashion brand is using AI in the design process; Saks to close nine department stores; Ford discloses $900 million tariff hit.

Coach-owner Tapestry is all-in on artificial intelligence, using it for everything from design to marketing and inventory management. For finance chief Scott Roe, adoption is a little slower.

Companies are encouraging their ranks to embrace and use AI. What that means in practice ranges from using the technology to review legal documents to coding and interacting with customers.

Tapestry, which along with Coach owns Kate Spade, is among the growing list of fashion brands using AI in the design process. The company’s designers sketch a bag, for instance, and then use AI to speed up repetitive tasks such as showing color variations or materials, executives have said. The technology also makes marketing campaign creation more efficient, according to Roe, who is also the company’s chief operating officer.

Say a model shows up to a location to shoot an advertisement that then tests poorly before its release. Typically, that would involve some kind of reshoot, which Roe said can be “really costly and slow.” With AI, it’s easier to make adjustments to product colors or remove certain elements of the ad, for instance, without necessarily needing a redo, he said. “It just helps you be a lot more efficient and to get much better insight into, did you land what you were intending to land, and how is that resonating to your group of people that are relevant to your brand?” 

On a personal level, Roe knows the importance of AI. “The leadership profile of the future is, how do you manage both people and agents within your company?” he said.

Still, his own use in its early days. The CFO said he’s relying on more junior colleagues for help. “I have a reverse mentor, because what I've learned is people are more advanced than I am, and there's no way to learn except hands on a keyboard.”

—Jennifer Williams

📆 Earnings: Albemarle, Ameren, AppLovin, Cisco Systems, Equinix, Generac Holdings, Hilton Worldwide Holdings, Humana, Kraft Heinz, Martin Marietta Materials, McDonald’s, Motorola Solutions, NiSource, Paycom Software, Rollins, Shopify, T-Mobile US, Vertiv Holdings, Waste Connections and Westinghouse Air Brake Technologies

📈 Economic Indicators

The Bureau of Labor Statistics releases the jobs report for January.

Corporate distress and bankruptcies. The pace of large U.S. corporate bankruptcies slowed in January, falling to 59 in January from 75 in December, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence data. Still, signs of distress remain. The parent of Saks Fifth Avenue and Neiman Marcus plans to close nine department stores as part of an initial review in the luxury retailer’s chapter 11 restructuring proceedings.

Epstein files fallout. Corporate leaders and politicians remain under scrutiny, with Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick the latest in the hot seat. Lutnick, formerly the chairman and CEO of Wall Street firm Cantor Fitzgerald, is facing calls to resign over his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, which a recent batch of files shows was more extensive than Lutnick previously revealed.

Ongoing geopolitical risk. Cuba’s economy is grinding to a halt under the U.S. oil blockade, leading to fuel rationing, public transport cuts and ripple effects in the airline industry. Air Canada, which said it had 3,000 customers in Cuba, said it was suspending service to the country because of the fuel shortage.

• U.S. Weighs Seizing Tankers Carrying Iranian Oil to Pressure Tehran

The Trump administration dealt Ford Motor a $900 million tariff blow to close out 2025, Sharon Terlep writes.

Ford said Tuesday that U.S. officials alerted the company in December that a tariff-relief program announced in October would be retroactive going back to November, not all the way back to May as the automaker anticipated.

Key CFO quote: “We were notified very late in the year by the Trump administration of an unexpected change,” Ford finance chief Sherry House said as she announced fourth-quarter financial results.

📰 Other headlines

• The Booming Business of Luxury Grocery Stores
• Paramount Sweetens Warner Offer
• Activist Investor Pushes Warner to Walk Away From Netflix Deal
• How Fake Invoices Duped BlackRock Unit Into a $400 Million Loan
• American Airlines Is Struggling, and Its Crew Members Have Lost Patience
• Big Tech Companies Prepare to Skirt Trump’s $100,000 H-1B Fee
• Exclusive: Trump to Repeal Landmark Climate Finding in Huge Regulatory Rollback
• Podcast: Walmart's Former CEO on the Company's Turnaround
• Inside a $5 Billion Fortune: One Family’s Ledger in the Epstein Files

📈 Earnings wrapup

• Spotify Shares Jump on Strong Earnings, Subscriber Growth
• Mattel Holiday Sales Sputter, Issues Weak Guidance
• Zillow Swings to Fourth-Quarter Profit as Revenue Climbs
• AIG Logs Lower Profit as Net Investment Income Slides
• Lyft Shares Slide on Mixed Fourth Quarter

For more earnings coverage, click here.

This March 23–24, financial leaders will gather in Palo Alto for The WSJ CFO Council Summit to examine how CFOs are navigating market volatility, evolving trade and regulatory policy and the growing impact of AI on the future of the enterprise. Join the CFO Council and be part of the conversations shaping the future of finance and corporate leadership.

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Astera Labs has poached its next CFO from Rambus, naming Desmond Lynch incoming CFO. Astera Labs on Feb. 4 entered into an offer letter with Lynch, appointing him CFO effective March 2, according to a Tuesday regulatory filing. Lynch will succeed Michael Tate, who notified semiconductor company Astera Labs that he would retire from the CFO role on the effective date. Tate will transition to a strategic adviser position until Sept. 1. Astera's offer letter to Lynch includes an annual base salary of $500,000, plus a discretionary performance bonus target of 95% of that base salary. 

—Emon Reiser contributed to today’s Ledger.

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