A Boardroom Showdown: Why AI Strategy Is Stuck Between Finance and IT

“If you ask a CIO and a CFO who owns the company’s AI strategy, odds are both will raise their hand.”

That tongue-in-cheek quote captures a serious dilemma: at the board level, who truly owns a company’s AI strategy? Right now, the C-suite is in a tug-of-war. According to Gartner, 71% of CFOs believe they’re in charge of enterprise-wide technology, and 77% of CIOs say the same. Meanwhile, a OneStream survey reports that three out of four CFOs (75%) now claim to lead their organization’s AI strategy. In other words, both finance and tech chiefs are raising their hands, each convinced they hold the reins. It is a rising leadership tug-of-war, fueled by AI’s high stakes and promise.

Why the scramble for ownership? AI has quickly become the strategic frontier. Whichever executive steers that ship gains influence over budget, talent, and the company’s future direction. No wonder both CFOs and CIOs are eager to claim the title of AI strategy champion. Yet this overlapping enthusiasm can create confusion. If everyone at the top thinks “I’ve got this,” the stage is set for misalignment, duplicated efforts, or important AI initiatives falling through the cracks.

Unpack the Misalignment

The heart of the issue is a misalignment born of good intentions. AI is inherently cross-functional, it touches product development, operations, customer experience, finance, IT infrastructure, and more. It does not fit neatly into one department’s silo. The CFO and CIO each approach AI from different angles, and without coordination, those angles do not always line up.

First, consider budget ownership versus implementation. The CFO controls the purse strings and focuses on financial outcomes. They are asking: Will this AI investment earn a return? How do we minimize risks and costs? The CIO, on the other hand, is tasked with actually implementing the technology. They are thinking about technical architecture, data integration, model development, and deployment at scale. In simple terms, the CFO is responsible for viability and budgeting while the CIO handles technical strategy and implementation. Both roles are crucial. But if one side sets strategy without the other’s input, execution can falter. Conversely, if tech is deployed without a clear financial rationale, ROI will disappoint.

This leads to a strategic versus operational divide. CFOs often take a strategic view, ensuring AI initiatives align with business goals and deliver value for money. CIOs manage the operational execution, choosing the right platforms, algorithms, and talent to make it happen. When done in tandem, it is powerful. When done in isolation, it is problematic.

Ultimately, the misalignment comes down to a lack of a shared narrative. Both CFO and CIO bring valuable viewpoints, but strategy does not live in a silo. When communication falters, the organization risks tech investments that do not meet business goals and business strategies that miss tech opportunities. AI is too far-reaching for that kind of disconnect.

Reframe the Narrative

So how do we fix this leadership tug-of-war? The answer is to change the question altogether. Boards and CEOs should stop asking “Who owns our AI strategy?” and start asking, “How do we co-create an AI strategy that reflects both financial discipline and technical execution?”

Instead of a single owner, imagine a coalition of key leaders co-authoring the AI roadmap.

Practically, this means CFOs and CIOs, and likely the CEO, COO, and other stakeholders, sitting on the same side of the table to define AI’s role in the company’s future. It is a shift from turf battle to team sport. The board can facilitate this by making AI a standing joint agenda item, ensuring that both the CFO’s perspective on value and risk and the CIO’s perspective on capabilities and innovation are heard in one conversation.

Success becomes collaborative. It is not one department winning ownership, it is the company winning with AI.

Light Stratavor Tie-In

This challenge of alignment is exactly where Stratavor comes in. Without hard-selling, it is worth noting how tools can help bridge the CFO–CIO divide. Stratavor’s role is to act as a neutral translator and unifier between finance and technology silos.

How? By turning fragmented operational and financial data into board-ready insights that everyone can rally around. For instance, Stratavor’s AI-driven platform seamlessly unifies ERP, CRM, and raw datasets into narrative reports that executives can actually use. Instead of finance having one version of the truth and IT having another, Stratavor delivers a single source of truth. The CFO and CIO (and the rest of the C-suite) end up looking at the same numbers, trends, and risk indicators presented in an easy, decision-oriented format.

Curious how Stratavor does it? Book a quick demo to see how turning fragmented data into boardroom clarity can take the CFO–CIO collaboration to the next level.

At the end of the day, winning with AI is not about planting a flag and declaring ownership. It is about partnership. The companies that dominate the AI era will be those that foster a culture of shared ownership and collaborative strategy at the very top.

The winners in the AI era will not be the ones who claim ownership. They will be the ones who share it.