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The ‘Inevitability’ of Deep Job Cuts; Plus, Big Returns From AI Investments Are Here
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Good morning, CFOs. Special Edition: Highlights from the conclusion of the WSJ CFO Council Summit.
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Amrita Ahuja, CFO and COO at Block, left, and Dana Peterson, chief economist at the Conference Board, speak at the WSJ CFO Council Summit in Palo Alto, Calif. PHOTO: Nikki Ritcher for the WSJ Leadership Institute
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Block warned that deep job cuts across companies will be unavoidable amid greater adoption of artificial intelligence, Mark Maurer and I reported from the summit on Tuesday.
Key quote: “It feels like the acceleration is actually only quickening and we are seeing, really, an inevitability at this point around productivity gains and what that means for us as a business,” Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer Amrita Ahuja said Tuesday at the WSJ CFO Council Summit in Palo Alto, Calif.
Asked if she expects other companies to treat Block’s layoff strategy as a template for their own, Ahuja said, “I think it’s an inevitability. As a CFO, I think it’s better to be a little bit early than to be too late here.”
The background: After announcing a 40% workforce reduction last month, the payments company has found itself at the center of a debate spreading across American corporations over how extensively businesses should cut staff as AI tools increasingly take over certain tasks.
Block’s chairman and co-founder, Jack Dorsey, cited rapidly improving AI models as the primary reason for laying off more than 4,000 people when the owner of Square and Cash App announced its layoffs.
Read on below for other summit highlights.
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Content from our sponsor: Deloitte
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Box CEO Aaron Levie: Unlocking Value in Unstructured Data
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The power of AI to deliver competitive insights and fresh opportunities can spark new strategies for transforming workflows, resource deployment, and value creation models within the enterprise. Read More
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📆 Earnings
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Chewy
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Cintas
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JBS
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Jefferies Financial Group
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Paychex
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PDD Holdings
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Gina Mastantuono, president and CFO of ServiceNow, and Harmit Singh, chief financial and growth officer at Levi Strauss, speak at the WSJ CFO Council Summit. NIKKI RITCHER FOR THE WSJ LEADERSHIP INSTITUTE
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Finance chiefs once questioned the returns on investing in artificial intelligence. Those days are gone, Kristin Broughton and Jennifer Williams report.
Finance chiefs from the tech, retail and financial services sectors said their companies are seeing big gains in efficiency and productivity—in some cases worth millions of dollars—from their investments in generative AI, those leaders said, speaking at CFO Council Summit. Nudging employees to embrace AI also has yielded new ideas about how to accomplish time-consuming tasks, CFOs said.
Finance chiefs say they are playing a leading role in their company’s AI transformation efforts, evaluating performance, pushing for productivity gains and clearly articulating the value to reluctant employees.
Key quote: “It’s about ensuring they understand that AI is not going to take your job. People who use AI are going to take your job if you don’t become a power user and understand the value,” Gina Mastantuono, ServiceNow’s president and CFO, said about employee messaging on the topic.
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THE WSJ CFO Council Summit
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At the summit on Tuesday, top company CFOs also noted their main takeaways from the summit. Heard from our gathering this week:
Shopify CFO Jeff Hoffmeister on explaining the AI strategy to investors:
"Understandably, for a lot of investors, they're in the early stages of trying to figure out the implications on everyone's business. And what does our business look like, what do the financials of their business look like three, four, five years from now? How does that change versus their present view of the business? It's been coming up more and more in investor questions and perspectives and we're working really hard to make sure people understand everything we're building for agentic commerce."
Warby Parker CFO Adrian Mitchell on future hires:
“There's a lot of conversations about how the entry-level job can be done by AI, etc., but I do believe that the future world will still need talented team members as part of the working team.”
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How Shopify Grew Without Adding to Its Headcount
Shopify CFO Jeff Hoffmeister breaks down how a companywide mandate to build with AI drove immediate ROI—allowing the e-commerce giant to grow 30% annually over three years without expanding its workforce.
Navigating ‘Two Different U.S. Economies’
VantageScore CEO Silvio Tavares explains why CFOs must now build two entirely distinct value propositions for the thriving top of the economy as well as the increasingly strained lower tier.
For all the video highlights, click here.
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“I do. We’ve had some conversations with the SEC recently where they haven’t really said when, but it was clear to us that they’re really thinking seriously about putting out what’s called a concept release.”
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—Bill Harts, CEO of the Long-Term Stock Exchange, when asked on Tuesday if he thinks a proposal for semi-annual financial reporting by companies will happen.
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The Wall Street Journal's CFO Journal offers corporate leaders and professionals CFO analysis, advice and commentary to make informed decisions. We cover topics including corporate tax, accounting, regulation, capital markets, management and strategy. Follow us on X @WSJCFO. The WSJ CFO Journal Team comprises reporters Kristin Broughton, Mark Maurer and Jennifer Williams, and Bureau Chief Walden Siew. You can reach us by replying to any newsletter, or email Walden at walden.siew@wsj.com.
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