TALENT MANAGEMENT

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Hiring for finance roles has historically been a challenge. Now, widespread AI use is making the task even more difficult.

AI—and its younger sibling, automation—have created a standoff of sorts between employers and job-seekers. HR departments and recruiters use AI and software to sift through the “piles” of resumes they receive and filter out the unsuitable candidates. (And let’s not get started on AI interviewers.) People on the hunt for jobs have adapted: Nearly half of US job candidates said they were applying to more positions to increase their chances of getting through the filters, in a 2025 survey from hiring platform Greenhouse. Also common? Using AI to tailor their resumes to job descriptions, even if, in some cases, the jobs aren’t good fits.

CFOs are witnessing this in real time. Mindr, a company that makes blood alcohol detection and other safety-related products, recently received “several hundred” applications after it posted an opening for a manager-level FP&A position, CFO Sonya Evanosky told CFO Brew. “Some of the resumes honestly just didn’t make sense,” she said, and it was obvious that some of them were AI-generated.

Scott Charles, CFO of benefits administration and well-being platform Personify Health, has also been hit by an avalanche of AI-generated resumes. His company got about 700 applications for a recent finance role, “and not one was what we were looking for,” he said. Sometimes Charles sees resumes containing odd phrasing that suggests they were composed by AI.

How to detect when an interviewee is using AI.—CV

      

Sponsored By Mizuho Americas

Curious how AI hyperscalers will alter the market? In less than 15 minutes, you can hear a comprehensive analysis that gets you up to speed.

Mizuho’s Head of Investment Grade Capital Markets and Syndicate, Victor Forte, is joined by the Head of Investment Grade Debt Capital Markets, Moshe Tomkiewicz, to discuss the shifting landscape ahead of a major tech earnings rollout.

Throughout the discussion, Forte and Tomkiewicz go over:

• How is hyperscale supply reshaping credit market spreads?
• What is the impact of AI-driven data center expansion on debt capital markets?
• Why is tech CapEx volatility driving caution among bond investors?

Tune in to hear the answers.

AUDITING

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The PCAOB has rolled out a draft of goals and objectives for its five-year strategic plan—and, once again, it’s looking for feedback.

During a July 20 open meeting, members of the auditing overseer voted to accept public comments on the draft. Interested parties can make their opinions known by September 4 on the PCAOB’s website or via email or regular mail (in case you’ve been looking for a chance to use that fancy company letterhead).

The draft is “largely based” on feedback the PCAOB received from its first round of public comments, Chair Jim Logothetis said during the meeting. On March 31, in a first for the PCAOB, the regulator requested feedback even before starting to compose its strategic plan. It got “70-plus comment letters” from stakeholders, Chief Strategy Officer Lorene Rosenberg said. “This is the highest number of comments received for the PCAOB to date.” More than 50 of the letters, Logothetis said, came from parties who had never commented before.

The strategic plan contains six broad goals for improvement.—CV

      

INVESTORS

Morning Brew Inc, Photo: Getty Images

The AI trade is getting increasingly overheated. On one hand, AI companies keep posting record results quarter after quarter. On the other hand, hyperscalers are raising eye-popping sums to keep the spending spree going. That leaves investors with a difficult question: What do you do now?

Rather than chase the Nvidias, Microns, and other AI darlings dominating headlines, Lazard is taking a decidedly less flashy approach. The asset manager is looking at lower-risk infrastructure businesses across energy, water, transportation, and communications—think roads, bridges, power grids, and cell towers—via a series of infrastructure-focused funds, including the new Lazard Listed Infrastructure ETF.

The appeal is predictability. Lazard targets companies whose regulatory agreements or long-term concession contracts can generate steady cash flows, giving investors something that sits somewhere between the stability of bonds and the upside of stocks. More than half of Lazard’s Global Listed Infrastructure Portfolio is concentrated in Europe and the UK, where the firm sees particularly strong long-term investment needs.

That has led the portfolio managers to some not-so-household names like toll-road operators Ferrovial and Vinci, British utility National Grid, Illinois-based Exelon, telecom tower owners American Tower and Crown Castle, and New York utility Consolidated Edison.

The healthcare industry is also drawing investor dollars, Brew Markets reports.—SY

      

EVENT

MBI

The numbers exist. The confidence sometimes doesn’t. Join CFO Brew on September 2 for a conversation on how growing organizations can reduce data friction, improve governance, and create reporting finance leaders can actually rely on. Turns out “I’ll double-check that” doesn’t have to be part of every meeting.

market forces

Francis Scialabba

Today’s top finance reads.

Stat: 2.4 points. That’s the increase in US small businesses’ confidence in July after four straight months of waning optimism, per the latest iteration of the NFIB’s Small Business Optimism Index. (CFO Dive) 🪀

Quote: “The goal of a central bank isn’t to make capital markets more exciting by removing a source of transparency and information. Once you start providing transparency, it’s hard for the market to accept ​that you’re just going to take it away.”—Alexander Morris, CEO of F/m Investments, on the FOMC potentially scaling back communications (Reuters)

Read: Carnival’s CFO shares how he and other leaders turned the ship around in the years after the Covid-19 pandemic. (the Wall Street Journal)

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Jobs

Skip the noise and cut to the jobs that matter. CollabWORK curates openings from top employers and shares them directly in trusted spaces like CFO Brew—click here to see the full list for readers like you.

• Controller at Centers for Independence
• Chief Financial Officer at Tidelands Health
• Deputy Chief Financial Officer at Port of Seattle
• Corporate Controller at Continental Resources
• Director of Accounting at Arvato Bertelsmann