While AI can automate more tedious processes in businesses, it’s important to choose the right platforms. Payments can be easily automated, but CFOs should consider many factors when adding technology to payments—otherwise the process could get worse. I spoke with Matthew Davies, a global payments executive at Bank of America, about what CFOs should consider before making this decision. An excerpt from our conversation is later in this newsletter.

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As the Federal Reserve Open Market Committee prepares to meet this week, it’s unlikely that there will be any big changes. Analysts are unanimously expecting the board to keep baseline interest rates unchanged, according to CME FedWatch. Inflation remains sticky and consumer confidence is trending downwards, hitting an all-time low for the 48 years the University of Michigan has measured it.

Change may be coming soon. This is likely to be the last Fed meeting chaired by Jerome Powell. Kevin Warsh, President Donald Trump’s pick to take the helm of the board when Powell’s term expires, had the first hearing last week on the road to an eventual Senate confirmation vote. And a pathway for that vote opened as the Trump administration dropped its criminal probe into Powell last week—an investigation many said was motivated by Powell’s unwillingness to lower interest rates at Trump’s request.

At his Senate hearing last week, Warsh said he was not Trump’s “sock puppet,” and the president had not forced him to pledge a rate reduction—even though Trump told CNBC that morning he would be disappointed if Warsh didn’t immediately lower rates.

Businesses are looking for growth, but it’s been difficult. A new study from EY-Parthenon, exclusively shared with Forbes, shows 80% of executives find today’s environment for business growth more challenging than a year ago, and 97% have changed their growth strategies in the last year to address new external issues.

AI can be a useful tool in updating and amending this strategy in volatile times, EY-Parthenon found. And while nearly four in five executives say they expect AI to accelerate growth, only about a third trust the technology to help them make decisions that could do that.

How can leaders build that trust in AI and use it for something deeper than productivity and efficiency? EY-Parthenon suggests a broader view of how AI can help. Companies can use it to explore their own IP and data for new opportunities. It can add deeper reasoning to a wealth of business decisions—including identifying opportunities to bundle and scale goods and services, finding the right customers to........

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