Might be time for finance chiefs to enroll in some price sensitivity training.

Price sensitivity among consumers is on the rise across industries: 57% of CFOs reported an increase in consumer price sensitivity in their sector, according to a February Grant Thornton survey of more than 230 finance leaders across industries.

Still, a large majority (84%) of the CFOs reported passing “some cost increases” to customers in the course of the last year.

Companies are feeling the squeeze, too. Nearly six in 10 CFOs said they had to restructure “cost and operational efficiency practices” within the last year as a result of inflation.

In response to affordability and pricing pressures, advanced pricing models—including those using AI—“are increasingly being used to balance customer sensitivity with profitability, including segmented pricing for different customer groups and dynamic pricing based on demand or inventory,” the survey’s authors noted. “While 16% of organizations have fully implemented these approaches, another 35% are rolling them out more broadly across the business.”

Keep reading.—NP

Though macroeconomic turmoil and technological disruption have garnered most of the headlines lately, another evergreen issue is keeping CFOs from achieving their goals: lack of skilled finance and accounting talent.

A February 2026 Robert Half survey found that only 6% of finance teams have the skills they need to complete critical projects. More than half (53%) of finance and accounting hiring managers surveyed said that skills gaps were more pronounced than they were a year ago, while 57% said they needed to upskill staff. Hiring also persists as a problem: In a June 2025 survey by Personiv, 87% of finance leaders said there was an accounting shortage, up from 63% in 2020.

But one CFO may have found a solution. Paul Young, CFO of Liberty Bank, combined apprenticeships with a job rotation program to give staff the skills they need to grow with the financial institution. Word about the programs has spread locally, he said, and it’s strengthened Liberty’s brand as an employer. He’s recently received over 100 résumés for an open apprenticeship position. Plus, the initiative has boosted retention: Not one of the employees who’s gone through the apprenticeship program has left the bank, Young said.

Keep reading.—CV

TL;DR: Sorry for the whiplash, but EVs are again having a ~moment~, and this time it’s not because of a tax credit or Cybertruck. The US-Israel war with Iran has created a choke point for the 20% of global oil supplies that travel through the Strait of Hormuz, sending gasoline prices surging. Now, consumers are taking another look at EVs—though experts say it’s currently more of a vibe shift than a buying spree. Either way, it could be yet another blow to the US auto industry that just spent months ctrl-alt-deleting its EV investment.

What happened: Vehicle shopping website Edmunds reported that consideration of electrified models made up 23.8% of vehicle research activity during the second week of March—the highest level so far this year, and up from 22.4% the previous week and 20.7% the week before. “When we see a gas price spike, people start to evaluate options,” Jessica Caldwell, Edmunds’ head of insights, told Tech Brew. “A lot of people just want to know what is out there.”

Reminder: Domestic automakers spent the last several months pulling back on EVs after federal policy changes deprioritized electrification—including killing a $7,500 tax credit for EV purchases.

Keep reading on Tech Brew.—JG

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