TECH

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At many companies, AI is moving out of the experimental phase.

“I think most CFOs are now viewing this as a real investment,” Alfred Sanders, CXO forums program leader at consulting and outsourcing firm Genpact, told CFO Brew. “It’s no longer ‘Are we going to implement AI?’ It’s more like, ‘What is the actual business outcome that we’re going to get out of this?’”

But tracking the ROI of AI can be challenging. Companies and even departments within them are at different levels of AI maturity. Organizations may use a bewildering variety of AI applications, some of which have different pricing models. Complicating things is the fact that AI costs have risen, pressuring CFOs to quantify the value of their organizations’ investments in the technology.

When it comes to tracking AI ROI, “I can’t say that there is one golden ticket,” Richard Paik, CFO of GitHub, told CFO Brew. Paik came to GitHub, one of the largest code hosting platforms in the world, after more than 20 years at Microsoft. He and Sanders shared with us their advice for determining AI ROI.

Tokens ≠ ROI: To begin with, Paik has advice on what not to do: “Never measure the tokens,” he said. The concept of “tokenmaxxing”, he jokes, definitely wasn’t developed by a finance person. “We look at that and are like, ‘There’s no way I’m gonna measure productivity based on how much people spend on tokens,” he said.

Don’t forget about the “soft” gains.—CV

      

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ACCOUNTING

Anna Kim

Ten of the nation’s top 20 largest accounting firms will soon be owned by private equity.

Crowe (No. 12) and Eide Bailly (No. 18) both announced deals with PE funds, the Wall Street Journal reported; Crowe sold a majority stake to KKR, in a deal worth around $3 billion, while Eide Bailly, valued at around $1.8 billion, sold a majority share to Reverence Capital Partners. Both deals are expected to close in the third quarter.

After the deals are finalized, both Crowe and Eide Bailley will adopt alternative practice structures, separating their audit and attest services from their tax, consulting, and other business lines to comply with independence rules, according to the Wall Street Journal. The nonaudit businesses are the ones receiving the PE investments.

Both firms said they were taking PE money in order to spur growth. Crowe said it wanted to do more acquisitions, while Eide Bailly COO Andy Spillum told the Wall Street Journal that the firm planned to double its $840 million revenue in the next three to four years. And both firms wanted more capital to invest in AI.

Capital injections will help speed up transformation.—CV

      

EARNINGS

Morning Brew, Inc, Photo: Edward Berthelot/Getty Images

As it turns out, denim really never goes out of style.

On Wednesday, Levi Strauss reported stronger-than-expected second-quarter earnings as resilient consumer demand continued to fuel growth. Its pivot into a direct-to-consumer business is going well: DTC sales rose 11%, with more than half of the company’s revenue now coming from its own stores and website.

The clothing giant is also doubling down on premium denim: Sales of its high-end Blue Tab collection (which can retail for upward of $300 per pair of jeans) jumped 40% this quarter. While it remains a small portion of Levi Strauss’s overall revenue mix for now, CEO Michelle Gass said premium denim could become a $200 million business.

Despite the strong quarter and raising guidance, Levi’s failed to meet investors’ high expectations. Shares fell over 5% on July 8 and another 2.22% the following day.

A tougher sell. Not every company is finding shoppers quite so willing to open their wallets.

Last quarter was a different story at PepsiCo, Brew Markets reports.—SY

      

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market forces

Francis Scialabba

Today’s top finance reads.

Stat. 13,500. That’s the backlog of US companies stuck in private equity portfolios as of June 30, according to PitchBook data. That’s up from roughly 13,300 at the end of 2025. About 4,000 of those companies have been held for six or more years. (Wall Street Journal)

Quote. “Interest rates picked up this week as the gradual breakdown of the ceasefire with Iran has stoked fears of further inflation and geopolitical instability.”—Joel Berner, senior economist at Realtor.com, in a blog post (USA Today)

Read. Breakout Wimbledon star Arthur Féry, who entered the grass-court tennis championship ranked 114th in the world, will take home $1.2 million after losing in the semifinals Friday. He’s the son of French hedge fund manager Loïc Féry. (Business Insider)

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