The somewhat fraught relationship many CFOs have with generative AI is nothing new: Generative AI is great at drawing conclusions through inference, while CFOs need exact conclusions drawn through data. But as the threat of fraud grows, CFOs have another reason to rely on generative AI: fraud detection. New data released today from fraud prevention software company Trustpair shows that 71% of CFOs are seeing more AI-powered fraud—but nearly half of them (48%) still validate vendor accounts manually.

In an interview about the data, Trustpair CEO Baptiste Collot told me that CFOs are dealing with competing pressures. They want to take advantage of the technological benefits of instant payments for vendors—something 75% already do or plan to implement. Yet only about 30% of CFOs continuously monitor the accuracy of this vendor payment data, which is an area that can be exploited by fraudsters.

“If you want to move fast, you continuously need to trust your data and monitor the data: Move from a situation where you used to control data once, to a situation where you need to continuously ensure the accuracy of this data,” Collot said. “And the only way to do this is basically technology. The idea is not that CFOs don’t care about fraud. It’s just that they don’t have the right hunger to defend against fraud. They rely too much on humans, while they need to rely on a multi-layer fraud prevention system.”

But for those using automatic payments, there actually are new tech-enabled rules that are intended to strengthen companies against fraud. Nacha, the organization that governs the ACH automatic payments network, has a package of risk management rules going into effect on March 20—which Trustpair found that 45% of CFOs were unaware of. (The majority said they were confident that they would be in compliance by March 20.)

Collot said that these rules should be changing the payments game for all CFOs, forcing them to come more into compliance with modern-day fraud technology—especially since noncompliance can lead to ejection from the ACH network or fines of up to $500,000 a month. But Trustpair found that many CFOs are also learning about fraud defense the hard way: One in four companies saw six-figure losses through payment fraud, and nearly half had to devote multiple days to straightening out the incidents.

While new rules and economic losses should refocus the CFO’s attention on stopping fraud, Collot said that fraud itself will never stop. But while AI is making fraudsters smarter, CFOs can work with their CIOs to strengthen their defenses using AI, too.

“AI changed the landscape of making fraud easy at scale,” Collot said. “Companies will take time to adopt AI…tools that allow them to beat fraudsters, but [it is] just a matter of adoption of these new technologies. They will, but it’ll take time.”

Stopping fraud is one way for companies to keep their revenues up, but in these uncertain times, many other partnerships are underway as well. In many companies, CFOs are working more with CMOs—a collaboration that B2B marketing firm 2X CFO Brandon Sullivan said should always be active. I talked to Sullivan about how CFOs can work more effectively with CMOs, and an excerpt from our conversation comes later in this newsletter.

This week is the first Federal Reserve Open Market Committee meeting of 2026, and there’s a lot on the table for the Board of Governors to look at. Though let’s start with what everyone is wondering about: Economists think it’s extremely unlikely that the meeting will result in an interest rate cut—CME FedWatch is issuing a 97.2% probability that interest rates will stay the same.

Volatility has surged in markets in recent weeks, largely due to President Donald Trump’s renewed insistence that the U.S. take over Greenland and the steep trade threats that accompanied it. A week ago, the entire world seemed on pins and needles over Trump’s threats to European allies over the Danish territory. But negotiations with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte led the president to back away from his earlier threats, and Trump announced on Wednesday that there was a framework for a deal to give him what he wants. It’s still........

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