Good morning. In highly regulated industries, the question is not whether companies can deploy AI, but whether they can trust AI to make decisions that will affect customers, the market, and the broader economy.
At the first AIQ Summit on Thursday, Hari Gopalkrishnan, Chief Technology and Information Officer of Bank of America, and Sally Moore, Chief Customer Officer of S&P Global and Co-Head of Market Intelligence, stated that adopting AI is about adhering to a discipline rooted in governance, data, and accuracy, rather than being a race to integrate this technology into every work process. This discussion follows the release of the Fortune AIQ list by Fortune and ServiceNow this week, which identifies the 500 companies that have produced measurable impact from AI each year.
Gopalkrishnan indicates that at Bank of America, the company assesses AI deployments from 16 risk dimensions, including privacy, bias, employee impact, and intellectual property. He said that the starting point is not the model itself: "We start with the customer's needs first. AI Can it really solve this problem?"
“One of the biggest mistakes we made was to hastily implement AI as a solution, when in fact deterministic models could have done the same job just as well,” said Gopalkrishnan. The most costly mistake is not necessarily moving too slowly; it could be investing funds in a complex AI solution when simpler technologies could have provided more reliable and lower-risk returns.
When AI deems it necessary, he says that governance must be ongoing: establishing safeguards, evaluating outcomes, and monitoring whether the system leads to unintended consequences. A fraud model that puts certain demographic groups at a disadvantage, or a chatbot that is unable to adequately serve customers with specific accents, can lead to not only technical issues but also risks to customers, compliance, and reputation.
For S&P Global, the foundation is data. Moore indicates that the company's collaboration with a large global bank demonstrated the operational value of combining proprietary intelligence, domain expertise, and implementation support. She said that S&P Global helped this bank reduce the time to market for its products by approximately six times and increased the accuracy of tasks involving multiple datasets from around 60% to 98%.
But accuracy alone is not enough. Moore says, "You need to be able to ensure that you can trace the original IP sources that support these decisions." In high-risk applications, it is crucial to be able to trace the results generated by AI back to the underlying data and intellectual property.
Wish everyone a happy weekend.
Sheryl Estrada
Sheryl.Estrada @ fortune.com
Ranking Table
Fortune 500 Senior Executive Changes
Northern Trust Corporation (Position 317), the Chief Financial Officer, Dave Fox, has announced his retirement. Fox plans to remain in office until the end of the first quarter of 2027 to support the transition period. Northern Trust intends to search internally and externally for the next CFO. During this time, it is expected that Fox will continue to lead the financial operations and work closely with the Chairman and CEO, Michael O, Grady, and the management team. Fox joined Northern Trust in 2012. Before taking on his current role, he served as President of Global Family and Private Investments, as well as Executive Vice President and Head of the Americas region for Corporate and Institutional Services. Prior to joining Northern Trust, Fox worked at JPMorgan Chase for over 25 years.
Fortune Weekly " Fortune 500 Power Moves " column tracks changes in the senior management of Fortune 500 companies – you can view the latest issue.
Other notable changes this week:
John Vandemore has been appointed as Executive Vice President and CFO of Levi Strauss & Co (New York Stock Exchange ticker: LEVI), effective from November 1st. Vandemore will succeed Harmit Singh, who has announced plans to retire in April and will continue to serve as Chief Financial Officer and Growth Officer until Vandemore. Subsequently, Singh will act as a special advisor until November 30th to support the transition. Vandemore comes from Skechers U. Over the past nine years, S.A has held the position of CFO, responsible for global financial organization and operational functions. Earlier on, he served as Executive Vice President of Global Brands and Commercial Sales at Mattel and as CFO and Financial Director at International Game Technology. He also held financial and operational leadership roles at The Walt Disney Company, including CFO at Walt Disney Imagineering.
Gunnison Copper Corp announced that Jennifer Hays will take on the role of CFO starting from October 12th. The mining company stated that its flagship assets include Gunnison Copper Project and Johnson Camp Mine in Arizona. Hays will replace Fabio Rocha, who previously served as a temporary CFO and will be promoted to Senior Director of Accounting and Reporting. Hays has approximately 20 years of financial experience, covering the U.S. defense industry base and government contracting sectors. She most recently held the position of CFO at Ralliant Corp's defense and aerospace company, PacSci EMC. Prior to that, she held senior financial positions at Intel for about 17 years.
Cars.com appoints Trent Ziegler as the successor to CFO, effective from October 19th, and will officially take over from Sonia Jain to assume the position of CFO on November 6th. Jain will continue to serve as an executive advisor until March 31, 2027, to support the transition. Ziegler comes from the fintech holding company FairSquare and will hold the role of CFO. Prior to this, he worked at the online lending platform LendingTree for over a decade, including a three-year tenure as CFO and seven years in charge of investor relations and financial management. His career began at Ally Financial.
David has appointed Kathy Cherian as CFO. Cherian has recently served as the CFO of Magnolia, responsible for the financial operations of the company's retail, e-commerce, media, hospitality, and consumer goods businesses. She previously worked at Nike for over a decade, where she held the position of Nike Canada CFO and was involved in global business planning.
Zendesk appoints Rachita Sundar as CFO. Sundar takes over from Julie Swinney, who has now been promoted to Chief Administrative Officer and Executive Sponsor for Employee Services at Zendesk. Sundar possesses over 20 years of experience in finance and business operations, having previously worked at technology companies such as Microsoft Azure, HubSpot, and Qualtrics.
Ivica Maric will replace Yves M and ller to assume the role of CFO and Chief Operating Officer of Hugo Boss AG. Mü ller has left the management board for personal reasons and will step down as requested on October 1st. He has held the position of CFO since December 2017 and was granted the title of COO in May 2022, during which time he helped lead the company's CLAIM growth strategy. Maric has been working at Hugo Boss since 2005 and most recently served as the Executive Vice President of Business Operations; he will take over these two positions after Mü ller departs.
Large Transactions
A report by Bain and Company estimates that AI could transfer $4.7 trillion in global corporate profits between 2025 and 2035, with an impact scale that is more than three times that of the Internet over the same period. The core argument of Bain is that this opportunity does not primarily come from cost-cutting. The company estimates that about 75% of the expected profit transfer will come from innovation and competitive redistribution, rather than just increased productivity.
This report categorizes the industry into four types, ranging from enterprises that provide the foundation for AI, such as chips, cloud computing, and data center infrastructure, to those industries that AI could potentially reshape the competitive landscape or replace existing delivery models. The view of Bain is that existing companies that possess proprietary data, customer relationships, and are willing to restructure their work processes may be better positioned to capture value. On the contrary, if companies treat AI merely as a technical project, it could allow competitors to gain an advantage.
In-depth reading
The following are four weekend reading recommendations from Fortune:
The Real Story Behind the Farce of Red Lobster’s “Unlimited Shrimp” for $20: How a Iconic American Seafood Brand Lost Its Way – Nick Lichtenberg
GM's Mary Barra indicates that the transition to electric vehicles is still just the beginning – even though the road ahead is longer – Alyson Shontell
"Europe needs to shed its naivety": Vestas CEO Henrik Andersen talks about Chinese competition and the energy issues that keep him awake at night – Sam Birchall
"In this high-risk 'game of chicken' between CEO and the governments of various countries, who will back down first?" —— Ruth Umoh
Hearing only
The field of humanitarianism has spent decades addressing some of the most difficult operational issues on Earth. If AI can help us solve them better – by carefully setting up the right safeguards, maintaining transparency, and providing evidence to prove its effectiveness – then we should not feel apologetic for using it. We should insist on continuing to use it.
——As written by Jeannie Annan, the Chief Research and Innovation Officer of the International Rescue Committee, in an opinion piece published on Fortune.
