Why CFO-CIO Alignment Matters for AI

Hello everyone. We're back. Texron TV, I'm Colleen Call, and we're at Coupa Inspire 2026.

It's day two, and we have an unusual pair. We have a CIO and a CFO here to talk about how working together just works. We have Amy and Mike from Coupa.

Amy, Mike, thank you for joining us. Thank you. Thank you.

You guys are sharing a stage, which is, of course, pretty unusual. Why does this work? Let us know.

At Coupa, especially. I think for us, it works really well because the systems and the processes that we go through and how we're going to use technology going forward is just absolutely foundational to our overall strategy. So I think everything that we talk about internally is just tied to not just our financials or the product, but it's also how are we going to do things going forward.

So I think for us, something that has obviously a huge financial impact of how we're going to operate in the future. So I think for us, just being super close and aligned on how that strategy is going to get executed and the tools we're going to use, works incredibly well with the things that we're trying to achieve over the next two to three years. Yeah.

I agree with everything that Mike said. And then also, Mike's an incredible operator. Yep.

So even ahead of AI, we're working very closely on the business transformations we needed to run through Coupa. And we're really closely partnered, and I think that created a really strong foundation leading into this. When did you know that this had to happen?

This relationship that's usually siloed. When did you know that this had to happen in order for it to make work? And then will this be the nature of most companies in the future, especially when it comes to AI automation?

I'd say Coupa's obviously owned by a private equity company. One of the fundamental things that private equity companies do is they transform how the company usually operates. Mm-hmm.

So even from the onset, starting two years ago, before I even joined Coupa, Amy was leading a very large system transformation- Wow ... across the board. So I'd say, in the environment that we work in, it's always probably super fundamental to the transformation that you're going to take, because foundationally, you have to redo the systems to understand the data to then operate differently.

And I think that just gets accelerated now when you're in an age of AI, because you need the foundational systems to be in place, but now there's an extra layer of how you can change how you operate. The majority of CFOs say AI is central to their strategy. 92% worry that they can't pull it off.

So what's the honest story about what makes it so hard? I don't think we have any concern of whether we're going to pull it off. Yeah.

We're 100% confident we're going to use AI, and it's going to transform how we work. Mm-hmm. I think it's more about how much are you going to do how quickly- Mm-hmm ...

is probably more the thing that we think about. And I think it's been a journey of us figuring out, as the tools are evolving, which is happening so rapidly, what you can do changes every single month. Yeah.

So I think for us, it's more about you get the tool, you play with the tool, you understand what you then can do. But then you can do something really cool really quickly, but then hardening it and then scaling that across the whole organization is where you then have to stop and rebuild the roadmap. So I'd say for us, we feel very confident, or it's 100% certain we're going to use the tools.

It's then how do you scale the tools? And then what we see with scaling the tools, it's the same stuff that you have to do with the systems. You can't cheat the hard work, which is you have to know the exact process, you have to know the data structures that you want and the sources of those data.

You have to make those data pipelines and all that structure super uniform and consistent, and then when you put AI on top of it, you get a really consistent output. Then the AI output is just so much greater than what you'd get if you put it into a dashboard or the typical tools you'd use to digest that data. So how does that look in the CIO perspective?

Well, there's a heavy focus right now on making sure that we've got all of our data certified in a data warehouse. We've got those data pipelines that Mike was talking about coming in from the data sources that we really need to lean in on to understand where our priorities for AI, and that we've got that data there to support what we're trying to do. And I'll also echo, I'm not scared that we're going to fail.

I think that we've got a really agile approach to what we're doing. And as Mike said, as things are changing every month, we're constantly in communication and then discussing how we need to adjust our strategy as a result. So with that in mind, this new strategic relationship, how are your teams on the side of CFO and CIO, how are they taking it?

How are you changing their mindset if it needed to be changed? Yeah, I'd say the first thing, there's a couple components to that. I think going back and talking about data, I think the thing that we're realizing is that there's so much data in a company, but so much of it you couldn't use because it'd be too complicated to analyze, right?

So if you think of all call recordings as an example. You now can use a call recording, you can filter out themes and bubble up really insightful market information. And your ability to just do so much more with AI with data is now just so exaggerated that you want to grab way more data, but you need to do it in a really structured way.

Yeah. So I think we're accelerating that, but then we're pushing all of our teams to think, okay, if you have this source of data, what are now the use cases that you can put on top of that? And then how do you think differently about how you're going to do that work?

" We want people to say, "I have this huge set of data. " And because you now can do different things, you should get 10X the value or insights that you used to get in the past. So then for us, it's about how do you push your team to think about completely operating differently, not just repeating the same thing a little bit more efficiently.

And as for your team, same? Yeah, same. I'll say that we're doing a lot of work right now.

We're using AI to help us think about how we transform into an AI-first process- Mm-hmm ... and an AI-first operating model. And the more that the teams are touching it, they're getting really excited.

So we're not having to push people down this path. It's really getting them exposure to the tools and getting their hands on it. So a CIO and a CFO watching this and hearing these awesome conversations, there's a lot of positivity behind it.

What's the first thing that they should do when they see this to get together this week and say, "You know what? " And your pennies. Yes.

The first thing I would do, so it's taken us a long time to probably figure out a framework. We've been working on this for a year, and it's constantly evolving. I think the first thing I would do is the framework we're landing on is we're thinking about work, so the way in which people do their work, and that's each individual.

We're thinking about workflows, so what's the process across an organization? And we're thinking about workforce, which is then how a team is structured, how I enable people, but all of the HR components to it. So I think I'd probably try to define a framework, and then inside that framework, try to think about what is your highest value use case or thing that you want to change, and then just make, one, get the tool in people's hands, test it, and then try to make a roadmap inside that framework.

I'll say just getting people activated, as John Frank was saying on stage today. Ooh. That step always seems to be the hardest.

So there is strategy that needs to be put in place, but I think if you can start with a small POC- Mm ... really get an understanding of how AI can make a difference for you, and then just start growing from there, and that will help you detail out what your strategy's going to be. And then just keep growing and adjusting from there.

So speaking of the keynotes, I know I missed both because I'm setting up talking to you wonderful people, but what are your insights so far? I know Lee Flemmings here had a fantastic keynote presentation yesterday. And today, I know we missed Kevin, Meg, and Philip.

But any insights you want to share with us or to your people when you go back? This is a wonderful event. I assume this is not your first.

Second. Yeah. Your second?

Yeah. Oh, fantastic. I'd say from an insight perspective, when we talk to customers, a lot of them say the same thing.

They want to deploy AI. They've probably deployed some frontier model across their organization. They want to use AI in procurement, but they don't really know how to get started.

So I think for us, what we hear from our customers is the things that we're releasing in terms of, one, an AI native sort of package that gives them some out-of-the-box tools they can start using, but then also resources, whether that's from partners or directly from us, but then shows them two or three high-value use cases that gets them going feels like that's very much where the market is at right now. Yeah. Love that type.

Any other insights? Just talking to our customers, I was fortunate enough to attend part of DevCon. Yeah.

What about that? Yeah. Just so much excitement.

People getting their hands on things and really starting to see what they can do, even without an IT team. And just incredible attendance there. And the number of agents that were built in the last day and a half is really incredible.

That's awesome. Now, this is what happens when two people who are usually in separate rooms get together and do something perfect. So thank you for joining me today.

I hope you have a great rest of the event. And we'll be back. More to come.

Tekstra on TV at Coupa Inspire. Stay tuned.