Considerations Every CFO Should Make Regarding AI Technology

AI has made impersonation cheap and convincing. Deepfakes and AI-generated scams now create real financial risk, making this a CFO issue as much as an IT one.

A strong MSP (Managed Service Provider) can implement the right systems, monitoring, and training—but your policies and judgment ultimately decide whether money leaves the account.

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Why AI Fraud Belongs on the Finance Risk Register

AI has changed the way fraud works. Attackers can now:

• Clone executive voices from short audio clips

• Generate emails that match your tone and signature

• Forge invoices and vendor messages that look legitimate

For CFOs, this impacts three major risk areas:

• Cash control for wires, ACH, and payroll

• Reputation and regulatory exposure when fraud or data loss occurs

• Operational disruption from remediation work after an incident

If you manage the numbers, you are already part of the security plan—whether formal or not.

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Where Deepfakes and AI Hit CFOs

1. Payment Approvals and Urgent Wires

A realistic scenario:

You receive a “CEO” call or video meeting with an urgent request for a confidential wire. The voice and face seem correct, and the story is plausible. If your payment process allows a single message to override controls, your organization is exposed.

Key risk: One person can approve and execute a large transfer based on a single channel of communication.

2. Vendor and Banking Changes

AI enables attackers to:

• Create clean invoices matching your templates

• Fabricate reply chains that look like ongoing conversations

• Mimic internal project names and language

If banking changes are accepted by email alone, or if vendor verification is inconsistent, funds can be diverted for months before anyone notices.

3. Compromised Executive Accounts

Attackers sometimes take over a real account rather than impersonating someone. Using AI, they can:

• Search years of emails for payment patterns

• Copy writing styles

• Target high-value approvals and vendor changes

If your controls rely solely on “it came from their email account,” you have a gap.

4. Shadow AI Inside Finance

Even your own team can create risk inadvertently:

• Pasting financial or HR data into public AI tools

• Using unapproved extensions that read email and browser content

• Relying on AI output without proper review

This can conflict with contracts, privacy rules, and internal policies.

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What “Good” Looks Like for a CFO in the Age of AI

You don’t need to be a security engineer—but you do need clear standards for your MSP and IT team to implement.

1. Strong Identity and Access Control

Expect that:

• Multifactor authentication (MFA) is required for email, finance, and HR systems

• Access is role-based, not convenience-based

• Executive and finance accounts receive extra monitoring

• Regular access reviews are conducted

This reduces damage if an account is compromised.

2. Clear Rules for Moving Money

Payment workflows should not bend under urgency or persuasion:

• Dual approval for high-value or unusual payments

• Vendor bank changes require verification via known phone numbers, not email alone

• No exceptions for travel or meetings

• All approvals are documented and auditable

AI can fake urgency. Your process should remain firm.

3. Modern Email and Collaboration Security

Traditional spam filters are not enough. Expect your MSP to provide:

• Advanced email security analyzing behavior, not just keywords

• Correct SPF, DKIM, and DMARC setup to reduce spoofing

• Alerts for unusual forwarding rules or logins

You don’t need to know technical details—just a clear answer when asking, “How are we preventing business email compromise?”

4. Data Protection and Recoverability

If an AI-enabled scam coincides with a breach or ransomware event, resilience matters:

• Critical systems are backed up and tested

• Sensitive data is encrypted and access is logged

• Recovery time and data loss targets are defined and realistic

From a CFO perspective, this ensures continuity and accountability.

5. Training That Reflects AI Risks

Security awareness must match current threats:

• Show staff real examples of AI-generated phishing and deepfake audio

• Practice responding to “executive” requests to bypass processes

• Provide clear escalation paths when something feels off

The goal: People slow down, verify, and follow workflow—even when the message looks perfect.

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How a Managed IT Provider Like Novatech Helps

You likely don’t have time to design and manage the full control environment. A mature MSP with strong security capabilities can act as your operational partner.

1. Build and Enforce Technical Controls

Your MSP should:

• Implement MFA, conditional access, and least privilege across core platforms

• Deploy and tune advanced email and endpoint security tools

• Maintain and monitor these controls continuously

Your role: approve strategy and budget. Their role: make controls real and reliable.

2. Embed Verification into Workflows

A good MSP operationalizes policies by:

• Integrating payment approvals with collaboration tools to enforce dual approval

• Adding alerts for vendor banking changes and high-risk actions

• Documenting verification steps clearly

The safest option should be the default.

3. Monitor Executive and Finance Activity

Your MSP should:

• Track unusual logins and device changes for key accounts

• Detect patterns indicative of business email compromise

• Provide regular, understandable reports

You should see evidence of attempted attacks, not guess.

4. Deliver Targeted Training and Playbooks

Beyond generic awareness:

• Simulate AI-enhanced scams against finance teams

• Provide incident playbooks detailing roles and responsibilities

• Help define safe AI usage guidelines across the company

This makes cybersecurity a business discipline, not just an IT function.

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What Still Sits With You as CFO

Even with a capable MSP, these decisions remain yours:

• How much friction you’ll accept in payment and access processes

• How much budget you’ll allocate to prevention, monitoring, and response

• How clearly you enforce compliance with security policies

• How AI and cyber risk integrate into board reporting and overall risk management

Your MSP can implement and propose. You decide the acceptable level of risk.

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A Simple 90-Day Action Plan

Next 30 Days

• Add AI-driven fraud to your formal risk register

• Review current protection for executive and finance accounts

• Require out-of-band verification for large payments and vendor banking changes

Days 31–60

• Confirm MFA and conditional access on all executive and finance accounts

• Restrict finance and payroll system access by role

• Launch AI-aware phishing and deepfake training for finance and leadership

Days 61–90

• Conduct a simulated CEO fraud or deepfake scenario with your MSP

• Update workflows and policies based on findings

• Schedule regular security reporting to finance and leadership teams

Novatech can help design and operate the systems that make these steps possible. Your role is to ask the hard questions, approve the plan, and hold the organization accountable. In the age of AI, that is what financial leadership requires.