If the FATE25 event in New York City made anything crystal clear for me, it’s this: the future of business hinges on the strength of the relationship between the Chief Human Resources Officer (CHRO) and the Chief Financial Officer (CFO).
In a world where artificial intelligence is reshaping operations and redefining value creation, these two roles—once considered adjacent—must now operate in lockstep. Not occasionally. Not during budget season. But as a unified strategic force guiding everything from workforce design to financial planning.
At Sapient Insights Group, we’ve spent decades decoding the intersection of people, process, and technology. But never before has the need for this kind of CHRO-CFO collaboration been more urgent or achievable.
Why Now?
AI isn’t just a shiny new tool; it’s an accelerant. It magnifies every strength and exposes every weakness in your workforce strategy, compensation model, and operational priorities. And yet, many organizations are still making people and technology decisions in silos.
Our mini event at FATE25, brought together senior leaders from finance to learn more about the complexity of HR and HR technology in a way they hadn’t experienced before. The idea was to help bridge the gap between these two critical areas.
Over the course of four roundtable sessions sponsored by Cornerstone, isolved, Paychex, and Salary.com, we tackled the key questions both CHROs and CFOs need to be asking together:
- How do we move beyond traditional HR metrics and tie workforce investments directly to P&L results?
- Where should we invest in AI-powered solutions to drive real efficiency and value?
- What regulatory changes are on the horizon, and how can we proactively prepare?
- How can compensation data serve not just as a cost line, but as a lever for growth and innovation?
These aren’t theoretical discussions; they are real-world challenges that can be solved for.
People Strategy Is Financial Strategy
One of the most powerful insights shared during the Cornerstone-sponsored session was this: labor costs account for 40–70% of total operating expenses, yet most organizations lack the infrastructure to quantify their return on workforce investment.
This is where CHROs and CFOs must join forces.
By leveraging verified skills data and living employee profiles, finance leaders can begin to make workforce decisions with the same level of rigor they apply to capital expenditures. That means not just counting heads, but understanding capability gaps, internal mobility pathways, and cost avoidance opportunities. It means treating people’s data with the same strategic discipline as financial data.
Done right, this partnership doesn’t just drive cost savings. It unlocks growth.
AI Requires Human and Financial Intelligence
In the isolved session, we explored where smart organizations are placing their bets on AI. The key takeaway? Technology only drives ROI when it’s guided by both fiscal discipline and human insight.
Whether it’s automating compliance processes, personalizing onboarding, or surfacing predictive analytics, the promise of AI can only be realized when HR and finance leaders co-create the vision, the use case, and the implementation plan.
And make no mistake: organizations are already investing. According to our most recent HR Systems Survey, 41% of organizations plan to increase HR tech spending in the next 12 months—with AI-powered tools topping the priority list. But without alignment between the CHRO and CFO, those investments can easily become disconnected from business goals.
Risk and Regulation Can’t Be Ignored
The Paychex-led discussion around the 2026 compliance landscape was a sobering reminder that the cost of misalignment isn’t just inefficiency; it is also risk.
With new regulations looming and workforce models becoming more complex, HR and finance need to share accountability for both compliance and opportunity. That means building shared dashboards, shared language, and shared responsibility for the outcomes.
Too often, regulatory updates are treated as after-the-fact hurdles. But when approached collaboratively, they can become catalysts for modernization, transparency, and trust.
Compensation: From Cost Center to Growth Driver
The Salary.com session rounded out the day with a powerful case for how compensation strategy, when jointly owned by HR and finance, can move beyond pay parity and become a true growth lever.
By understanding the evolving landscape of skills, roles, and compensation expectations, CFOs can move from viewing payroll as a sunk cost to seeing it as a dynamic investment portfolio—one that can be optimized, diversified, and leveraged for competitive advantage.
Final Thoughts: The Time for Joint Ownership is Now
The FATE25 event wasn’t just a conference. It was a call to action.
We’re in a pivotal moment. Our research tells us that overall, HR is viewed as a strategic partner by 52%. The sobering reality is that only 31% of HR functions are viewed as strategic partners by their Finance peers, and that is sobering and was generally acknowledged by attendees at the event. Imagine the power if we are able to bring these two areas together with shared accountability and mutual trust at the executive level. It will be a big miss if we don’t!
If you’re a CHRO reading this: reach across the aisle. Your CFO is your new co-pilot.
If you’re a CFO: recognize that your people strategy is your financial strategy—and your CHRO is the key to unlocking it.
And if you’re a CEO? Empower this partnership. Fund it. Protect it. Make space for it on the agenda.
Because in this age of AI, the organizations that thrive will be the ones where finance and HR are speaking the same language—and writing the future together.
