A CFO'S FIELD NOTES — THE CFO AI PLAYBOOK | POST 1 OF 3
The CFO AI Playbook: Your Work & Home Setup
98% of PE sponsors are asking their CFOs to prioritize AI adoption. Most don't know where to start. This is the first of three posts on what best-in-class looks like for a lower middle market PE-backed CFO — tools, setup, learning, and daily practice.
The Physical Setup
Dual or triple monitors. One screen for your AI interface. One for the source document or data you are feeding it. One for output review. This is not a luxury — it is the difference between context-switching and parallel processing.
Always-on voice input. Use Windows Speech Recognition, Apple Dictation, or MacWhisper to dictate prompts. A verbal prompt takes 15 seconds. Typing the same prompt takes 90. Over a day, that compounds.
Dedicated AI browser profile. Keep AI tools in a separate Chrome or Edge profile from your email and ERP. Prevents tab bleed and makes data handling boundaries easier to enforce.
The Core Tool Stack — What to Use and When
Claude (Anthropic) — Primary analytical engine. — Long-document analysis, board deck drafts, financial narrative, variance commentary. Handles large context windows well — critical when feeding a full financial package. Pro tier minimum.
ChatGPT (OpenAI) — Structured output. — Data extraction, Excel formula generation, templated recurring outputs. GPT-4o with Advanced Data Analysis runs basic analysis directly on uploaded CSVs and financials.
Perplexity AI — Market intelligence. — Benchmarking, industry research, real-time public data synthesis. Use this when you need to contextualize portco performance against sector trends.
Microsoft Copilot (M365) — Embedded automation. — Integrates into Excel, Word, Outlook, and Teams. The tool your team adopts fastest because it lives inside tools they already use.
Gemini Advanced — Google Workspace integration. — Use if your firm runs on Google infrastructure. Strong for collaborative documents when source data lives in Drive.
Data Handling Rules — Non-Negotiable
• Never upload identified portco financial data to a consumer AI tier. Use enterprise versions with data processing agreements.
• Anonymize before you analyze. Strip company names and identifying details for benchmarking work.
• No portco data in free tiers. ChatGPT Free, Claude Free, and Gemini Free use inputs for model training by default. Pro and Team tiers do not.
• Every AI-generated report requires human review before it reaches a board or LP.
Next: Post 2 covers how to actually learn AI — what works, what doesn't, and how to build team capability without losing months to certification theater.
What does your current AI setup look like — one tool or many?
Brad Wolfe | Wolfe Packs Consulting | wolfepacks.com
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