AI Commerciality from the CFO Seat: Why AI Requires a New Operating Model

Join Atif Hafeez (Finance Transformation Advisor and Researcher), Rose Punkunus (VP and Head of Procurement at Zone), and Thomas Kim (CEO, Zone) as they explore how finance leaders can move beyond AI experimentation and redesign their organizations for an AI-first future.

• Why most AI initiatives fail to deliver expected value
• The difference between AI-assisted and AI-first finance organizations
• How AI agents are changing finance operating models
• Human agency and decision-making in an agentic environment
• Why Quote-to-Cash and Procure-to-Pay are leading AI adoption
• What CFOs should prioritize over the next 12-24 months

Wanna nominate yourself, someone else, or a topic for a future episode? Let us know: https://hello.zoneandco.com/builders-of-financial-agency-be-on-the-show

Most finance teams are still building forecasts the same way they always have — pulling data, building models, updating spreadsheets. The problem isn't effort. It's that the underlying architecture was never designed to tell you what's coming.

In this episode of Builders of Financial Agency, Zone CEO Thomas Kim (AKA TK) joins host Rose Punkunus for a candid conversation about what it actually takes to move finance from reporting on the past to acting on the future.

TK draws on 30+ years in technology — including a story from his time at a publicly traded company where a missed line item derailed a board forecast — to explain why even experienced operators can end up driving in the dark.

The conversation covers why aggregate forecasting fails at scale, what it means to forecast at the micro level (per customer, per invoice), and why that kind of precision has historically been impossible without serious data infrastructure.

They also dig into Zone's partnership with Nixtla — the team behind TimeGPT, a foundation model for time series forecasting — and how it fits into Zone's broader architecture as the "foresight layer" alongside its orchestration and experience layers.

Plus: what Zone's billing anomaly detection is doing in practice today, the "intern vs. professional agent" distinction TK uses to explain where AI in finance actually is right now, and why the next phase isn't about one smart tool — it's about a system of agency that works across the full financial operation.

If you're a finance leader thinking about what AI actually means for your team in practice, this one's worth your time.

Wanna nominate yourself, someone else, or a topic for a future episode? Let us know: https://hello.zoneandco.com/builders-of-financial-agency-be-on-the-show

Finance teams have never had more visibility into their business. Dashboards, reports, forecasts, and real-time data are everywhere. But as Zone CFO Chad Wonderling explains in our very first episode of Builders of Financial Agency, visibility alone doesn’t move a business forward. The real challenge is what comes next.

In this conversation, host Rose Punkunus, Zone VP of Procurement Innovation sits down with Chad to explore the missing layer between insight and execution — and why modern finance teams are evolving from systems of record into systems of agency™️.

Drawing from his experience both as a former Zone customer and now CFO, Chad shares how finance organizations are rethinking workflows, approvals, forecasting, and operational decision-making in the age of AI. Rather than chasing hype, the discussion stays grounded in the realities finance leaders face every day: fragmented systems, reconciliation bottlenecks, disconnected workflows, and the growing pressure to act faster with confidence.

The episode dives into:

• Why finance teams often spend more time reconciling than deciding
• The shift from “What?” to “So what?” to “Now what?” in finance leadership
• How AI is helping teams remove friction from repetitive workflows
• Why ERP systems remain critical — but no longer sufficient on their own
• The rise of finance as a “system of agency”
• How modern finance talent is evolving alongside AI
• The importance of judgment, review, and human context in AI-driven workflows
• Why adoption matters more than hype when evaluating AI investments

You’ll also hear practical examples from Chad’s own team, including how AI is being used to improve accrual accuracy, surface operational risks earlier, and elevate frontline accountants into more strategic decision-making roles.

This episode sets the foundation for the entire Builders of Financial Agency series: exploring how finance leaders are turning insight into action with better systems, workflows, and AI.

If you’re a CFO, controller, finance systems leader, or operator navigating the next era of finance transformation, this conversation offers a practical and candid look at what’s actually changing inside modern finance teams — and what still breaks in practice.

Listen now and join the conversation.

To learn more about how Zone is helping finance teams move from insight to execution, visit:
Builders of Financial Agency

Builders of Financial Agency drops May 7th!