Just as one does not simply walk into Mordor, financial planning and analysis (FP&A) teams cannot simply automate their existing processes with AI tools. Take it from Liran Edelist, a 25-year-plus FP&A expert and cofounder of the knowledge-sharing website FP&A Hub.

“You can’t just put [in] a system that is keeping your old processes, [but] automated,” according to Edelist, chief product officer for enterprise planning at Lumel, which makes a tool for enterprise performance management (EPM).

He spoke with CFO Brew about how CFOs and finance leaders should approach using AI for FP&A, specific ways that teams can try out AI, and how they can avoid some of the risks associated with the tech.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

How should CFOs and finance leaders evaluate and compare AI solutions for FP&A?

Let me take half a step backward. Organizations need to start using some [form] of AI. Not everyone is there from a mindset perspective.

Get a little more education about AI capabilities. It could be in the prediction area, natural language processing, generative AI, optimizing, alerting, automation. What potential AI solution can bring the most value for the organization, [and] what [their] difficulties are.

For more on how FP&A can effectively use AI, click here.—GD

In Target’s third-quarter earnings call with analysts, CEO Brian Cornell gave a warm welcome to Jim Lee on “his first conference call as Target CFO.” After Wednesday’s earnings release, we wouldn’t blame the former PepsiCo executive for wishing he’d started the new job a couple months later: Wall Street punished the retailer’s worse-than-expected earnings by sending shares down 21%.

It wasn’t just that Target failed to meet analyst forecasts, or that it lowered its profit and sales forecasts for the year, but on Tuesday, rival Walmart beat Wall Street expectations on both earnings and revenue and increased its outlook. The larger retailer, which has been drawing a growing number of wealthier shoppers, is taking customers from Target, eMarketer analyst Zak Stambor told the Wall Street Journal. Target could lose even more market share if it doesn’t increase promotions, Citi analyst Paul Lejuez wrote in a research note shared with CNBC.

Walmart makes 60% of its sales on groceries and other daily needs, while 60% of Target’s sales are for home goods, clothing, and other things that people can postpone buying when they have less to spend, Kate McShane, a Goldman Sachs analyst, told CNBC.

So if consumers are feeling squeezed by the “cumulative impact of multiple years of price inflation,” as Cornell put it on Target’s earnings call, Walmart is better positioned to keep bringing in those shoppers.

For more on Target’s recent earnings flop, click here.—GD

Roughly 25% of the global workforce is anticipating being laid off in the next six months, according to a recent ManpowerGroup report. While the US job market has been steady, many workers are concerned about how the economy and hiring might be impacted by the incoming Trump administration.

“While we all talk about the fundamentals of the job market being fairly steady, there’s not a lot of hiring happening…Hiring is definitely paused,” Rajesh Namboothiry, SVP at Manpower US, told HR Brew. He said he’s heard from candidates and recruiters alike that the hiring is “not at the pace they’d like to see.”

What’s in store. Namboothiry said he expects hiring to continue at its current pace for the rest of 2024 and into the first few months of 2025.

“Not massive hiring. Steady, cautious hiring, niche-skills hiring, continued improvement in jobs report, but very steady improvement,” he said. “And then, I think Q2 is when I expect some shift to happen.”

Some companies, Namboothiry said, may have held off on 2025 budget and hiring planning until after the US presidential election. Now that it’s over, he said companies have more clarity on what the future may hold and how they can budget and hire accordingly.

To keep reading HR Brew’s story on 2025 hiring trends, click here.—MC