good morning. AI has officially moved into the mainstream.
At the World Economic Forum in Davos last week, OpenAI CFO Sarah Friar noticed a change. AI is no longer treated as a future experiment or an afterthought. Instead, world leaders are discussing it alongside geopolitics, energy and security as a core economic infrastructure.
But there’s a problem. Most organizations aren’t really leveraging AI to its full potential. Friar, who joined OpenAI in June 2024, kept hearing the same concerns at Davos: capability overhang. Simply put, there is a mismatch between what AI can currently do and what companies are actually doing with it. These tools are powerful and readily available, but they are barely integrated into the way most companies work and make decisions. Companies have only scratched the surface.
There is also new research on capability overhang with OpenAI. Details can be found here.
The technology giant is valued at about $500 billion in a recently completed stock sale, and sales are expected to jump from $6 billion in 2024 to more than $20 billion in 2025. In an interview with Fox’s Maria Bartiromo last week, Frier said, “An IPO is not off the table. It’s just a matter of when it happens.”
OpenAI is currently strengthening its financial bench. Mr. Frier announced yesterday that Mr. Ajmere Dale will join the company as chief accounting officer. Most recently, Mr. Ajmer served as chief accounting officer for the fintech division for almost a decade. Additionally, Cynthia Gaylor has been named Business Finance Director of OpenAI’s Corporate Division, responsible for corporate finance, long-term planning, capital strategy, special situations, and investor relations.
I had the opportunity to interview Gaylor in 2021 when he was DocuSign’s CFO. Gaylor began his 18-year career as an investment banker in the technology sector at companies such as Morgan Stanley. She also served as Head of Corporate Development at Twitter before beginning her career as an advisor to CEOs, CFOs, and boards across their most strategic responsibilities. She went from advising executives to CFO at two different companies. Mr. Gaylor served on DocuSign’s board of directors for several years before assuming the role of finance director.
“Financial organizations are on the move right now,” Friar said in a LinkedIn post. “We build, ship and operate at enormous scale, and we do so with rigor, pace and a strong sense of ownership.”
Cheryl estrada
sheryl.estrada@fortune.com
leader board
frank sluis Mr. Sluis has been appointed CFO of premium sportswear brand On Holding AG (NYSE: ONON), effective May 1. Mr. Sluis will replace Martin Hoffmann, who took on an expanded role as sole CEO last year and will continue to take on the role of CFO. Sluis has over 25 years of experience. Most recently, he served as CFO for Europe and Indonesia at food retail group Ahold Delhaize, a role he has held since 2021. Mr. Sluis previously held finance leadership positions at Reckitt Benckiser and Unilever.
Sardar Abu Bakr has been appointed CFO of NetSol Technologies, Inc. (Nasdaq: NTWK), a provider of software for the asset finance and leasing industry. Roger K. Almond, the company’s current chief financial officer, will remain with NetSol as chief accounting officer with responsibility for global accounting operations. Mr. Abu Bakr brings more than 20 years of international leadership experience. Most recently, he served as Vice President of New Business Ventures and M&A at Jazz, a subsidiary of VEON Group.
big deal
Amazon, No. 2 on the Fortune 500, announced Tuesday that it will close Amazon Fresh and Amazon Go stores as it refocuses investments on growth areas. Amazon currently operates 14 Go Stores and 58 AmazonFresh grocery stores, according to the company’s website. Most stores will close by February 1st, but California stores will remain open until mid-March due to the state’s labor notification requirements. Amazon said it will focus on expanding its Whole Foods Market brand and grocery delivery services through Amazon.com.
The company did not say how many employees would be affected by the closures, but said in a statement that it is “working as hard as possible to find roles elsewhere at Amazon, including across our vast network of operations.”
“Today’s announcement is an important step forward in Amazon’s broader strategy and should help the company gain market share in the fresh produce category, where it has struggled to date,” Wedbush Securities analysts said in a note Tuesday. “The reason this announcement is so important is because Amazon has yet to displace incumbents in the grocery category, at least when it comes to fresh produce.”
even deeper
“UBS is concerned that gold is rising as President Trump advocates a weaker dollar and fuels a narrative of relative US decline.” luck Article by Jim Edwards.
Edwards writes: “Yesterday, the price of gold hit a new record, soaring above $5,300. It’s up an astonishing 3% this morning, as measured by Comex ongoing contracts. Gold is up 22.31% year-to-date. It’s not hard to see why. Gold has outperformed as a safe-haven asset for investors looking to rescue assets dragged into the dollar’s decline.” Read more.
overheard
“While replacing entry-level workers with AI can increase profits in the short term, it will ultimately deplete the talent pool and create real vulnerabilities in the long term.”
—Patrick E. Hopkins, dean of Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business, writes: luck An opinion piece titled “Coming Soon: A Lost Generation of Employee Talent?”
