In this episode, Kevin Appleby hosts Acterys leaders Eric Reyhle (SVP Global Alliances) and Manuel Marcos (Regional Director EMEA/LATAM) to explore 2026: The Six Defining Challenges for the Office of the CFO. The conversation opens by underscoring why 2026 is a pivotal inflection point: the convergence of mature enterprise data platforms (e.g., Microsoft Fabric), governed data foundations, and practical AI that elevates finance from historical reporting to forward-looking decisioning. The guests frame AI’s promise and risks candidly—AI is transformative, but only as trustworthy as the underlying data and governance that feed it.
Across the discussion, Eric and Manuel translate technical change into finance impact: continuous planning over static, snapshot budgeting; predictive and scenario-driven decisions over backward-looking reporting; and a shift from spreadsheet “systems of record” to governed, auditable platforms that keep Excel/Power BI as the familiar front-end. They emphasize cyber resilience as a CFO mandate with direct P&L and valuation consequences, and outline a pragmatic path: modernize the data foundation, embed governance, enable real-time write-back and scenario modeling, and apply AI to augment—not replace—finance judgment. The result is a finance function positioned to deliver strategic foresight and resilient performance in 2026 and beyond.
Key topics covered:
- Why 2026 is the inflection point: convergence of AI, governed data, and enterprise platforms like Microsoft Fabric.
- From historian to pilot: AI automates consolidation/reconciliations and unlocks predictive forecasting and rapid scenario modeling.
- Keep Excel/Power BI; fix the back end: shift from spreadsheet “system of record” to governed, auditable, AI-ready data with real-time write-back.
- Cyber resilience is a CFO issue: attacks translate directly to P&L, cash flow, and valuation—governance and access control are non-negotiable.
- Continuous planning replaces static snapshots: always-on data flow enables weekly/biweekly scenario refreshes and faster decisions.
- Practical impact: 50–70% reduction in manual consolidation effort; 3–5x faster planning cycles; instant “what-if” responses for leadership.
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