Good morning. For companies that are still figuring out how to use AI, the focus of discussion is shifting from improving existing work to rethinking what the enterprise can do.

I discussed this change with John Felton, the Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Amazon Web Services ( AWS ). AWS refers to Amazon's cloud computing and AI platform. Felton often communicates with AWS customers, including other chief financial officers, and he stated that the adoption of AI among customers is still uneven. Many companies are still in the early stages of broader cloud adoption and IT modernization, which is also a prerequisite for large-scale deployment of AI.

"Overall, I would say that the entire industry is still in its early stages," Felton told me. "The pace of change is incredible, and things are moving forward very quickly. I truly believe that each company is at a different stage. I think we are all still quite early in this process." This puts him in an interesting position to observe, as AI is currently driving a new round of significant investment cycles.

Felton also pointed out that about two years ago, customers' discussions regarding AI mainly focused on productivity and cost reduction. Now, the situation is changing.

"Now, there is an increasing focus on: how can I use AI to create new revenue products, how can I create a new customer experience?" he said.

Considering the scale of the business managed by Felton, this viewpoint is particularly important. AWS now has an annual business scale of 169 billion US dollars, and Felton has worked at Amazon for over 20 years. He previously led Amazon's global operations and was appointed as the AWS financial officer in 2024, reporting to Amazon's Chief Financial Officer, Brian Olsavsky.

Felton says that the bigger change is not to add AI to the existing processes, but to rethink the processes themselves. What touched him the most was seeing companies adopting a "AI priority mindset" and using AI to reevaluate what the business should have looked like in the first place.

“This is precisely where many customers, including us, truly see additional value,” said Felton.

AI in finance

Within the AWS financial organization, Felton encourages employees to participate in this transformation, rather than waiting for others to tell them how to use AI.

His request was very straightforward: “Use AI every day.”

He doesn't specify which tasks employees should handle, nor does he dictate which tools they must use; instead, he encourages them to discover opportunities on their own. He says that employees know their own work better than he does. He does monitor whether employees are actually putting these ideas into practice, but he hasn't revealed the details of these metrics.

An example comes from the pricing team at AWS. Previously, the employees relied on a complex Excel model that spanned 18 tab pages to evaluate customer transactions. The team transformed it into a chatbot interface, allowing users to explore different scenarios through natural language questions.

They can ask what would happen if prices drop by 20%, how different payment terms affect a transaction, or where the break-even point is. Employees who prefer spreadsheets can still export the models to Excel. The focus is not just on making the existing tools more user-friendly with AI, but on the way it changes the way employees interact with the underlying analysis.

Another team built a AI proxy to compare the payment terms in customer contracts with those recorded in the AWS payment system. Previously, employees only conducted sample checks on a subset of contracts. This proxy allows the team to inspect all contracts.

"We don't just want to do sampling; we want to check everything," Felton described the team's approach in this way.

These two examples illustrate the broader changes he has observed in the AI strategy of the enterprise: not only using technology to make existing tasks faster, but also expanding the capabilities of the organization.

Felton is also using Amazon Quick himself. This is a work-related AI assistant that is used to query support materials prepared for board meetings and to find answers in underlying files. He believes that such daily experimentation is very important for chief financial officers who are looking for suitable use cases for AI.

Leaderboard

David Vaillant has been appointed as Executive Director and Chief Financial Officer of the World Bank Group. Vaillant has worked at BNP Paribas in France for 20 years and most recently served as the Global Head of Finance, Strategy, and Equity Investments for the Asset Management business. Prior to that, he held the position of Executive Director and Head of Banking Business for Europe, Middle East, and Africa at BNP Paribas' Corporate and Institutional Banking division.

Jonathan I and Lieber have been appointed as the Chief Financial Officers of the clinical-stage biotechnology company Bambusa Therapeutics. Lieber comes from Rallybio and has served as the company's Chief Financial Officer since February 2023. Prior to this, he held the position of Chief Financial Officer at Applied Genetic Technologies Corporation and also served as the Managing Director at Danforth Advisors. He has also previously served as Chief Financial Officer at Histogenics, Metamark Genetics, Repligen, Xcellerex, and Altus Pharmaceuticals.

Big Deal

Bank of America is expanding anti-fraud education for small business owners. Data from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) shows that in 2025, the reported losses from internet crime in the United States reached $20.8 billion, an increase of 26% from the previous year.

Reported losses due to business email fraud exceed $3 billion, and phishing and deception remain the most frequently reported cybercrimes. According to a 2025 report from Bank of America titled “Business Owner Report”, 30% of business owners plan to enhance their cybersecurity measures over the next five years as part of their digital investment efforts.

Bank of America's measures include an updated anti-fraud checklist, educational resources, and a webinar scheduled for later this fall on social engineering and business email fraud. President Sharon Miller stated that many scams succeed "not because companies lack technology, but because criminals exploit trust, urgency, and human behavior."

Going deeper

As the Audit Committee places increasing emphasis on AI governance, 82% of respondents indicated that its supervision is still in its nascent or limited stages, making this an issue of priority. The above conclusion comes from the fifth edition of Audit Committee Practices Report, which was jointly released by Deloitte's Board Effectiveness Center and Audit Quality Center.

The report, based on nearly 250 responses from chairpersons and members of audit committees, found that 70% of respondents believed that technology (including AI) is the most essential skill for enhancing committee effectiveness. Cybersecurity was identified as one of the top three priorities, with 87% of respondents mentioning it; 54% stated that their committees have paid more attention to emerging risks over the past year. The report indicates that AI governance has become a priority, but the level of preparedness is still in the development stage.

Overheard

"Every generation must master the iconic tools of their time. AI is the power tool of this generation."

– Abbott, the global healthcare company,'s Executive Vice President of Human Resources, Mary Moreland, wrote in an opinion piece for Fortune.