🚀 AI Coding, The Productivity Paradox & The New Funding Reality | The AI CFO

I've been thinking about one major impact of AI recently: it is creating a measurement crisis, forcing us to toss out all our standard rules of thumb.

Triple-triple-double-double-double is no longer seen as a surefire fundable growth trajectory. The fastest-growing companies don't even have 'ARR' to speak of. And high gross margins are actually bad now?

Everything is in flux, and it can feel disorienting to think about where the finance field is heading. But the people who can build conviction around the direction we're moving are going to emerge as big winners over the next year. That's why I'm writing this newsletter: to figure out what I think, and share my work along the way.

In this edition, I share an essay about one of the most interesting yet under-discussed trends I'm seeing today: operators' opportunity to make the leap into AI-assisted coding. Let's dive in!

The "AI is coming for finance jobs" conversation has been rehashed over and over again. Every post has the same warnings about AI automating models and reports, work finance professionals have spent years perfecting.

Yes, the concern is valid to an extent. But I've spent a lot of time thinking about how finance professionals can actually win during this transition.

My answer: AI-powered software development.

Finance professionals are actually better positioned to build software than most other business functions. Building financial models is already building software, just in a different medium.

I break down exactly how this works in the full article on my Substack.

Moats Before (Gross) Margins Revisited (a16z)

A compelling case that high gross margins in AI companies might actually signal that customers aren't using AI features, inverting the traditional quality metric and forcing founders to rethink how they demonstrate real value creation.

AI Gravity Gap: Solid Co.'s Not Raising (The Fund CFO)

Strong non-AI companies are hitting traditional benchmarks but still can't raise capital because AI has reset venture expectations to 5-10x YoY growth, meaning "good enough" metrics from 2023 might leave a startup unfundable in 2025.

The AI Productivity Paradox (Exponential View)

Tell me if this sounds familiar: your team is reporting massive productivity gains from AI tools, but those improvements aren't showing up in company-wide metrics yet. Understanding why (and how to bridge that gap) will determine whether your AI investments actually drive business outcomes or just make individuals feel busier.

That's all for this edition of The AI CFO - we'll be back in your inbox every other week with more musings on the future of AI-powered finance & operations. Please reply to this email directly with any feedback/suggestions/just to say hi!

Cheers,

Alex Wittenberg, CEO @ airCFO