Good morning. The AI project must secure its share of the corporate budget.

“It won’t automatically get a pass just because there’s ‘AI’ written in front of it,” Chevron’s Chief Financial Officer Eimear Bonner told me during a panel discussion at Fortune’s Most Influential Women Summit held in Santa Barbara on Tuesday.

"It must strive to attract capital." The criterion for Bonner is: a clear value proposition, transformative goals, and results that can ultimately be reflected in the profit statement. She said, "It can't just be a scientific experiment."

President and Chief Financial Officer Gina Mastantuno agrees that AI must yield returns, but she stated that nowadays CFO calculates return on investment in a slightly different way. In addition to measuring potential improvements in revenue and profitability, financial leaders must also consider the cost of inaction – if competitors adopt AI while one falls behind, long-term competitiveness will be at risk, she said.

She stated that ServiceNow will provide funding for projects that can enhance competitive differentiation, solve customer problems, and deliver measurable value within a clear timeline. “I don’t think the winners in the AI domain will be those who spend the most money,” she said.

Mastantuno calls for measuring the results, not just the activities themselves – it's not about how many AI pilots you have, but whether AI has improved revenue, efficiency, and speed. ServiceNow expects to save $500 million this year, mainly by using its own products.

Nasdaq's Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Sarah Youngwood stated that the company divides its investments into "Phase Zero" – which includes fundamental needs such as network security – followed by projects with short-term returns, medium-term bets, and more long-term research and development. Youngwood mentioned that Nasdaq's decade-long investment in cloud and algorithm AI has enabled it to serve its customers today.

"The key lies in the gold-standard data we possess," she said, citing that the company has data from 3,500 institutions representing assets worth trillions of dollars. Youngwood is responsible for AI KPI at NASDAQ, tracking input indicators such as training and platform engagement, as well as output indicators like coding speed, customer retention rate, and token costs.

For Bonner, she will take on the role of President of Chevron's Oil Products, Products, and Natural Gas Business on January 1st. Discipline also means regularly communicating with project teams to remove obstacles and confirm progress. Bonner said that AI is helping the company to find oil and gas more quickly, recover more resources from reservoirs, and predict maintenance needs.

Chevron is also on the supply side of the AI craze: The company plans to power Microsoft's data centers in western Texas through a 2.67 gigawatt natural gas project.

You can watch the full video of the group discussion here.

Sheryl Estrada

Sheryl.Estrada @ fortune.com

Leaderboard

Kenneth Crews has been appointed as the interim Chief Financial Officer of SAIC, effective from October 30th. The government technology services company stated that he will officially take on the role of Chief Financial Officer on December 7th, succeeding Prabu Natarajan. Natarajan will continue to serve as Chief Financial Officer during the transition period and has also been appointed as the Executive Vice President of SAIC's civil business group, a position he previously held on a temporary basis. Crews previously served as the Corporate Vice President and Chief Financial Officer at Northrop Grumman Corporation and has held various leadership positions over the past 20 years.

Joseph Sesin has been appointed as the Chief Financial Officer of the Denver Broncos, NFL. He most recently served as the Senior Vice President of Finance and Accounting for the National Women's Soccer League, Angel City Football Club. Prior to that, Sesin held the position of Senior Vice President of Accounting and Finance for Los Angeles SoFi Stadium, YouTube Theater, and Hollywood Park. Earlier on, he worked in investment banking at JPMorgan Chase for nearly a decade.

Big Deal

Going deeper

Wal-Mart heir and Ingeborg Investments CEO Olivia Walton stated at the Fortune Most Influential Women Summit that she is committed to investing $100 million over five years to halve the maternal mortality rate in the United States. Walton launched a non-profit organization Healthy Moms in April, Healthy Babies America. For more information, see here.

Overheard

Success requires more than just adopting AI. This means rethinking the customer journey, reducing friction, and helping travelers to have a smooth transition from the moment they develop an interest to the completion of their reservation.

Accenture, the head of global tourism business and senior managing director, Emily Weiss, wrote in an opinion piece for Fortune, explaining why travelers are turning to the competitors of their favorite brands.