Good morning. CFOs are increasingly stepping into CEO roles. But in the AI age, the bigger question may be how long they’ll be able to stay there.
“AI is changing the CEO’s role—and could lead to a changing of the guard,” is a Fortune feature by my colleague Phil Wahba. He points out that Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, for example, has had an extremely successful run—12 years in the corner office—with shares rising elevenfold during his tenure. Microsoft has also joined the elite group of companies valued above $3 trillion. But Wahba argues that Nadella won’t remain relevant or effective if he doesn’t stay on top of AI and its sweeping impact on the industry—and neither will his peers in any sector.
“This new reality is taking shape as several of the most high-profile Silicon Valley CEOs are extending their tenures into their second decades,” Wahba writes. “They include 53-year-old Sundar Pichai (10 years at Google, six heading its parent company, Alphabet) and Apple’s 65-year-old Tim Cook (14 years as CEO). It’s becoming clearer that AI will play a major role in how much longer these CEOs remain at the top.”
Elsewhere in tech—and across the Fortune 500—such long tenures will likely become increasingly rare, at least during the early waves of the AI boom. Indeed, the numbers are already beginning to shrink. You can read the complete article here.
According to Crist Kolder Associates’ 2025 Volatility Report, CFO-to-CEO promotions among Fortune 500 and S&P 500 companies reached a decade high of 10.26% last year, up from 6.15% in 2015.
CFOs also often take on a president role as part of the CEO pathway. Michael J. Cavanagh joined Comcast Corporation as CFO in 2015, was promoted to president in 2022, and began his tenure as co‑CEO in January 2026, serving alongside Brian L. Roberts. Comcast is upgrading its technology over several years, using AI and machine learning and converting its network to software-based systems.
Kathleen L. Quirk was a longtime CFO at mining giant Freeport‑McMoRan Inc., before her promotion to president in 2021 and CEO in 2024. Freeport is actively deploying AI across its operations, including autonomous mining and predictive analytics, and ranked No. 31 on the Fortune AIQ 50 list of companies generating notable results with AI.
It seems CFOs who want to be CEO-ready in the AI era need to layer classic CEO traits—strategy, storytelling, and people leadership—on top of new AI skill sets. The CEO-ready CFO will blend digital intelligence, systems thinking, AI governance, change leadership, and a compelling narrative into a profile built not just to reach the top job, but to keep it.
Sheryl Estrada [email protected]
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