IT STRATEGY

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It’s the biggest relationship story of 2026—yes, even bigger than Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce tying the knot at MSG. Well, at least finance executives might agree.

The working relationship between CFOs and their technology counterparts in the C-suite is going through changes in the midst of the AI revolution, according to experts who spoke with CFO Brew.

“That relationship has always been tight and close because it has to be,” according to Kevin Carmody, senior partner at McKinsey. The CFO’s need for good data and integrated systems, both in the technology chief’s wheelhouse, didn’t spring up only after AI, he explained.

As CFO Brew reported in the quaint year of 2024, CFOs with their “investment mindset” and their tech peers with their “technology strategy mindset” have always put their heads together to help guide their companies’ technology spending so that it supports business objectives.

But AI has brought on new challenges for both the finance and tech functions, including how to manage token spend, Carmody said. Finance execs also lean on their CIOs or chief data officers to think about how agents can automate certain job functions.

“I think the relationship between technology and the finance organization has, rightfully so, changed, but it’s also accelerated,” he said.

How Scott Grossman, CFO of Ensono, bonded with his tech execs.—AZ

      

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EARNINGS

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Consumers are holding off on big-ticket items like remodeling projects. Uncertainty, combined with what Home Depot CFO Richard McPhail described to CNBC as “frozen” housing market conditions, has made major home improvement retailers cautious about their prospects for the remainder of 2026.

In a Q2 2026 earnings call on Tuesday, Home Depot reiterated its guidance for the full year, and a day later competitor Lowe’s revised its outlook to the lower end of what it had previously stated.

Overall, Lowe’s Q2 results were mixed. It failed to beat expectations for revenue, though total sales were up 8% year over year, to $26 billion. Same-store sales rose only 0.2%, but Lowe’s surpassed expectations for EPS.

Home Depot beat projections for both revenue and EPS. Its sales were up 5.7% YoY, to $47.9 billion, and its same-store sales rose 1.3% in the US and 1.7% companywide.

Wary consumers. Executives at both retailers said that customers were opting for smaller projects over large-scale renovations.

Tariff refunds didn’t help Home Depot much.—CV

      

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HEALTHCARE

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Healthcare financing is extremely complex…duh. But it seems like even the money experts are struggling, according to a report consulting company Deloitte published earlier this month.

While almost three-quarters of healthcare CFOs (74%) said they’re expected to be “regularly or heavily” involved with enterprise decisions related to consumer affordability, access, and patient experience strategy, only 41% said they feel equipped to do so, the report found. This suggests CFOs may need updated reporting structures, more collaboration with leadership across departments, and more access to data to measure program results, the authors wrote.

The survey, conducted this spring, included responses from 32 finance leaders from health systems with over $1 billion in revenue and 32 finance leaders from health plans that have 500,000+ members.

The findings. With financial pressures in healthcare escalating, the CFO role has expanded to work closer with other executives who address clinical, operational, and strategic issues, according to the report.

Healthcare orgs are not quite designed with the 2026 CFO in mind, Healthcare Brew reports.—CM

      

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market forces

Francis Scialabba

Today’s top finance reads

Stat: 50%. That’s the latest proposed tariff from President Trump, this time on Canadian automobiles, trucks, and auto parts starting in January. (The Wall Street Journal)

Quote: “There’s a huge danger here that in the era of AI, we outsource our reasoning to these models, and we have cognitive atrophy that stops us being able to reason from first principles ourselves…You still need to reason about [problems] and structure it into an argument, and now we’re delegating reasoning.”—Chris Churchman, co-chair of Goldman Sachs’s global banking and markets AI working group (CNBC)

Read: It’s not too late to buy a major sports team to add to your portfolio of AI-proof investments. (CNN Business)

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