OpenAI CFO Sarah Friar said the company is using AI to reshape finance work around faster planning and decision-making rather than replacing human judgment. In a LinkedIn post shared Sunday, Friar said ChatGPT Work helps teams "spend less time reconciling the past and more time planning the future," while stressing that financial rigor and accountability remain with people. She wrote that AI can help teams spot issues earlier, ask better questions and deliver insights while there is still time to act. The comments around the post echoed that theme, with multiple readers arguing that AI can accelerate analysis and the flow of information to decision-makers, but should not be used to outsource judgment. One commenter wrote, "The distinction between automating analysis and outsourcing judgment is an important one." Friar expanded on that message in an essay posted Monday on OpenAI’s website, where she described building an AI-native finance function over the past two years. She said OpenAI started with a small finance team supporting a company growing at extraordinary speed and set two goals: a zero-day close (closing the books immediately after a period ends) and continuously updated forecasting. Friar said the broader aim is a finance team that understands events in real time, helps leaders evaluate choices ahead and gives the business more time to act before outcomes are fixed. She listed five lessons for CFOs: give employees access to AI and create incentives to use it; redesign workflows around decisions rather than tasks; let finance professionals become builders; combine speed with accountability and controls; and measure value per unit of intelligence. Friar also cited OpenAI research showing 40% of finance professionals’ specialized AI use happens outside traditional finance and 22% involves engineering-related tasks, underscoring her argument that finance leaders are well placed to lead wider AI transformation.