Modernizing the Office of the CFO: How Finance Can Move Beyond Spreadsheets
Webinar Speaker: Donald Farmer, TDWI Research Fellow
Date: Wednesday, September 30, 2026
Time: 9:00 a.m. BST / 10:00 a.m. CEST
Most finance work is suited to automation, following documented procedures, to produce the same answer every time and be verifiable against sources. But the office of the CFO has been slow to embrace opportunities for modernization.
The reason is mostly structural. Each system may be automated within its own boundary, making individual steps faster, but the work between systems (extracting, mapping and reconciling) is still done by people working with spreadsheets. TDWI research shows that data silos and data quality are still significant barriers to enterprise AI.
Progress depends on changing the data foundation first: we need one governed copy of the data, a semantic model that both people and AI agents can read consistently, and an application layer where finance staff can work without exporting and moving data between systems.
In this TDWI Solution Lab, research fellow Donald Farmer gives an independent view of this exciting category and the relevant research. A finance specialist from Sigma will show some compelling demonstrations of customer-focused AI across FP&A, reconciliation, and month-end close, and a Databricks field expert will join for an insightful discussion of the existing platforms and future possibilities.
- Why finance automation has changed so little in ten years, and why data architecture, not tools, is the cause
- How to separate deterministic finance work, which can be automated, from judgment work, which stays with people
- What changes for finance when we deploy a governed data foundation and semantic model
- Where AI agents can work effectively when that foundation exists, and what to expect when they do
Guest Speakers
Alasdair Anderson
Lead Solution Architect
Databricks
Alasdair Anderson is a financial services technology expert with over 25 years of experience in banking, insurance, and asset management. Alasdair joined Databricks in 2025 as a lead solution architect, supporting our financial services customers and partners.
Kyle Herold
Principal - Finance & Planning Applications
Sigma
Kyle Herold is a finance and planning expert with 15 years of experience in corporate finance, most recently as a finance director and Sigma customer. Kyle joined Sigma in 2025 and focuses on helping our Office of the CFO customers and partners integrate AI into their finance teams.