THE FINANCE CHIEF INTERVIEW

a global CFO survey that found 91 % of executives say AI has improved the timeliness and strategic value of financial decisions.

However, Barbara notes that Workiva’ s Mid-Year Benchmark Survey displays a different result. In that report, only 11 % of executives believe that their AI is data-ready.“ That gap is the real challenge,” she says.“ At Workiva, we’ re focused on helping customers apply AI using their own data and context so that outputs are traceable and defensible. The companies that are grounding AI in trusted, connected data today will have a significant competitive advantage.”

ESG and the responsibility of the CFO Workiva sits at an intersection of three key sectors a CFO needs to know; financial reporting, GRC and sustainability disclosure. Barbara explains that she leads the company’ s cross-functional Sustainability Task Force.“ It’ s a natural fit given how central reporting transparency is to everything we do.” she notes.

“ We prioritise transparency and accountability, and every year we voluntarily publish a sustainability report detailing our progress.” Workiva makes sure that these values are reflected not only in the work it does for its clients, but also potential clients. Investing into agentic AI, Workiva supports clients with their own sustainability goals, recently releasing a Sustainability Disclosure Agent which uses AI to identify and fill reporting gaps.

of business leaders told Workiva they are prioritising data and governance as AI adoption accelerates

Source: 2026 MidYear Executive Benchmark Survey: The Verification Gap

“ With more than 6,700 global customers, getting this right has an outsized impact on the quality of sustainability information reaching internal decision makers and investors” notes Barbara.“ That scale is what makes this work meaningful.”

As the CFO of a large-scale company designed to uniquely assist other CFOs, Barbara condenses some of her wisdom to three points. To get ahead, the best bet for finance executives, according to Barbara,

50 October 2026