"Following President Donald Trump's so-called Liberation Day, Atsmon said significant uncertainty emerged around the new administration's economic and geopolitical agenda. "If I look at the peak of uncertainty, what I was focused on as a CFO was: What are the things that I should be doing that would be helpful in any scenario?" Atsmon said. "The worst thing is inaction," he added. Acting on what you can control builds resilience, he said."
""The other thing that I think is different in 2025 than it was over the last 100 years is that so much of resource allocation now happens through the technology function of the company," Atsmon said. Yet there's still uncertainty about AI's readiness to impact the bottom line. McKinsey already uses AI to handle up to 30% of its tasks-such as faster research and better summarization-but "you can't really do a full strategic analysis yet," he said."
2025 produced widespread fatigue from uncertainty among finance chiefs amid shifting economic and geopolitical conditions following President Donald Trump's so-called Liberation Day. CFOs prioritized actions that remain effective across multiple scenarios, focusing on controllables such as improving liquidity, increasing operational efficiency, delaying or eliminating discretionary costs, and reassessing investment priorities. Defensive measures were balanced with reviews of long-standing strategies to capture competitive opportunities. Continued AI investment was recommended despite unclear near-term bottom-line effects, since some efforts stem from inertia rather than deliberate strategy. Technology functions increasingly govern resource allocation, and AI currently automates a significant portion of tasks but cannot yet perform full strategic analyses; timelines vary by company.
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