STRATEGY

Rob Israch

“This year is really about making AI operational and putting it into practice. There’s been enough evidence of success now, and enough people experiencing it in real life, where they know it’s real and it will have a real impact.”

So says Rob Israch, president of Tipalti, who has “pretty much been working with CFOs” his entire career. After a seven-year run at NetSuite, he’s spent nearly 12 years at Tipalti, during which time the AI-powered finance automation platform has grown from around 25 employees to more than 1,000.

Israch spoke to CFO Brew about where AI is being put into practice and how companies that are struggling with AI adoption can scale AI projects beyond the trial stage.

Some companies are struggling to advance AI beyond the pilot stage. What are the barriers at this phase?

We’ve done a lot of CABs, or customer advisory boards, in finance, and what they’re coming back saying is, one, “The first thing is we really have to trust the numbers.” And they know AI is not perfect, so whatever is deployed has to have an oversight, it has to have transparency, it has to have auditability. They have to understand why it came to its conclusion, and it has to have the person in the loop to approve it and review it.

Agent use cases tend to be focused on error-prone, problematic proceses.—CV

      

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TARIFFS

Geoff Robins/Getty Images

On July 20, President Donald Trump announced 50% tariffs on more than 500 Canadian imports, to go into effect on August 19. The tariffs will be levied on about $20 billion worth of goods—everything from cement, clothing, and furniture to wigs, wine, hockey equipment, and fishing rods. They represent roughly 5% of the approximately $382 billion in Canadian goods the US imported last year, Reuters reported.

Blame Canada. The Trump administration is imposing the new tariffs in response to what it views as Canada’s discriminatory practices against American alcohol, dairy, and automobile industries. Canadian imports of US vehicles are down 22% from last year and its imports of American liquor have dropped 81%, according to the White House, Reuters reported. (As for dairy? “The administration says Canada has taken protectionist measures on cheese,” the BBC observed.)

When the US placed duties on imports from many countries in 2025, Canada was one of the few nations to retaliate, levying 25% tariffs on $22 billion worth of US goods. The new tariffs are “a natural consequence of the Canadian retaliation,” US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said, per CNN.

The legal grounds being cited go back to the Tariff Act of 1930.—CV

      

TECH BUYING

Francis Scialabba

Things that are notorious for taking a long time to complete: trips to the DMV, a 1,000 piece jigsaw puzzle…and buying enterprise software?

According to a survey of enterprise software buyers by AI procurement platform Levelpath, 57% of traditional software purchases take 11 weeks or longer to complete from the time of need to final approval. When it comes to AI software worth more than $10,000, that figure jumps to 72%.

And to make matters worse, many companies are taking too long to settle on the right software. Almost half (45%) of US software decision-makers surveyed in June by Software Finder said their buying experience was so prolonged that the original business need became “irrelevant” before the purchasing decision was finalized.

What’s the holdup? There are several reasons why the buying process can often drag out for enterprises. More than half (58%) of respondents pointed to security reviews as a factor delaying or derailing a purchase, according to Levelpath. A similar proportion (57%) said vendor evaluations held up the process.

Enterprises can take steps to expedite software purchasing, IT Brew reports.—BM

      

market forces

Francis Scialabba

Today’s top finance reads

Stat: 9,000. That’s how many jobs luxury carmaker Porsche will cut by 2035 amid restructuring at parent company Volkswagen. (CNBC)

Quote: “When I was at Chipotle, I had a personal assistant who managed the calendar, and when I retired five and a half years ago, I decided I was going to do my own. I’m terrible at it, so I have to dedicate my Monday to sit down and do the calendar.”—Chipotle founder Steve Ells, on his Monday morning routine (the Wall Street Journal)

Read: Meta’s secret Louisiana data center deal. (the New York Times)

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Jobs

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