Friday, November 21, 2025

Intuit CFO talks $100 million OpenAI deal, innovation, and the road ahead

Good morning. Intuit’s momentum is being driven by a robust strategy, deep investments in AI, and now a new partnership with OpenAI.

The fintech company—maker of TurboTax, Credit Karma, and QuickBooks—this week announced a new multiyear contract, worth over $100 million, with OpenAI. The partnership brings Intuit’s platform capabilities directly into ChatGPT. “Hundreds of millions of people are engaging with large language models every week,” Sandeep Aujla, EVP and CFO at Intuit (No. 258 on the Fortune 500), told me. The collaboration allows Intuit to meet customers where they are, Aujla said. By building experiences inside OpenAI’s platform, Intuit aims to help people receive more insightful, personalized, and actionable financial advice—right in the moment and context they need it.

Take TurboTax, for example. Through the new integration, customers can ask ChatGPT tax-related questions, such as how to access their refund early to cover a major expense. They’ll receive responses tailored to their financial situation. “With the depth of our data, we can connect users to the right solutions, whether it’s filing early or accessing customized loan options via Credit Karma,” Aujla explained.

This deeply personalized approach is not only about serving existing customers but also about attracting new ones to Intuit’s platform. “We have 100 million customers on our platform; OpenAI has about 800 million weekly active users,” Aujla said. “Our teams are working together, thinking about what these experiences could look like.”

In a very tangible way, it’s also about powering prosperity for people, Aujla said. “We can give them authentic, tangible advice based on their unique situation.”

Data privacy and trust remain core pillars of the strategy, he emphasized. “It’s the customer’s data, and it remains on our platform,” he added. “Our standards for stewardship haven’t changed one bit.”

When it comes to measuring the success of the OpenAI partnership, Intuit’s approach is consistent: engagement, deeper relationships, and new customer growth remain key metrics. “This is simply a new door into the Intuit platform,” Aujla said.

A longtime bet on AI continues to shape Intuit’s future
Intuit reported its Q1 2026 earnings on Thursday, with revenue reaching $3.9 billion—up 18% year-over-year and beating analyst expectations. It’s all about executing a consistent strategy, Aujla said. Platform adoption, especially for AI-powered, done-for-you experiences like TurboTax Live Assisted, continues to resonate, with assisted TurboTax revenues at 51%. Intuit’s “money offerings” are also thriving, including bill pay, and midmarket sales are strong, with related revenues up 40%.

Aujla cites “early green shoots” in Mailchimp’s mid-market expansion, driven by new product launches, a scaled-up salesforce, and a renewed marketing push. The company is targeting double-digit growth by year-end, with optimism heading into spring, he said.

Reflecting on how Intuit has navigated a year of economic uncertainty, Aujla credits the company’s “culture of focusing on what matters most” and a strategy that’s both rigorous and forward-looking. The company’s operating system pushes leadership to debate what drives customer prosperity—not just over the next three years, but over the next decade, he said.

“We declared AI as the key to our strategy back in 2018—way before other people started talking about AI and it became fashionable,” Aujla said. This long-term vision helps Intuit remain indispensable, regardless of the external climate, he said. “We’re not a nice-to-have. We’re a must-have for both businesses and consumers,” Aujla said.

Looking toward 2026, Aujla’s top priority is helping 100 million customers “make the best financial decisions based on their unique positions.” Despite mixed narratives across the broader economy, Intuit’s data suggests stability—and the company remains laser-focused on delivering value and setting up customers for the best possible year ahead, he said.

Have a good weekend.

Sheryl Estrada
sheryl.estrada@fortune.com

Leaderboard

Fortune 500 Power Moves

—Mark Mason will transition out of the CFO role at Citigroup (No. 21) in March 2026. Mason will become executive vice chair and senior executive advisor to the chair and CEO Jane Fraser, with responsibility for advising on strategic initiatives, including preparing the firm for Investor Day. Mason joined Citi in 2001 and became CFO in 2019. He intends to pursue his leadership aspirations outside of Citi by the end of 2026. Gonzalo Luchetti will succeed Mason as CFO following the transition period. Luchetti has served as Citi’s Head of U.S. Personal Banking since 2021 and joined the company in 2006.

—Zac Coughlin was appointed CFO of Sirius XM Holdings Inc. (No. 448), effective Jan. 1, 2026. Coughlin will succeed Tom Barry, who is stepping down as CFO. Coughlin currently serves as CFO of PVH Corp. He joined the company from DFS Group Limited, a subsidiary of LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton Group, where he served as group CFO and chief operating officer. Before joining DFS, Coughlin was CFO at Converse, Inc., a division of Nike, Inc. He started his career with Ford Motor Company, where he held multiple global financial leadership roles.

Every Friday morning, the weekly Fortune 500 Power Moves column tracks Fortune 500 company C-suite shifts—see the most recent edition.

More notable moves this week:

Cor van den Berg was appointed CFO of Sunsweet Growers Inc., a global leader in dried fruit and beverage categories. He joins Sunsweet with more than 25 years of financial leadership experience. Most recently, van den Berg served as CFO at Darigold (Cooperative). Before that, he held CFO and other key finance and strategy positions at Mars, Inc. and City of Hope.

Nancy Erba was appointed CFO of Power Integrations (Nasdaq: POWI), a semiconductor company, effective Jan. 5, 2026. Erba most recently served as CFO at Infinera Corporation, a supplier of optical networking solutions, from 2019 through the company’s acquisition by Nokia earlier this year. Before that, she was CFO at Immersion Corporation. Earlier, Erba held a succession of increasingly senior leadership positions at Seagate Technology.

Ravi Thanawala, CFO and EVP, International at Papa John’s International, Inc. (Nasdaq: PZZA), has been promoted to CFO and President, North America, effective immediately. The company’s international business will now be led by Chris Lyn-Sue. Thanawala joined Papa John’s as CFO in 2023 and was promoted to CFO and EVP, International in 2024. He also served as the company’s interim CEO from March to August 2024.

Scott Lipman was promoted to CFO of Avenzo Therapeutics, Inc., a clinical-stage biotechnology company. He will continue to serve as the company’s chief business officer. Lipman succeeds Paolo Tombesi, who has retired from his CFO role. Lipman joined Avenzo in March 2023 as SVP of corporate development and was promoted to chief business officer in November 2024. Previously, he was on the leadership team at Turning Point Therapeutics, where he played a key role in its acquisition by Bristol Myers Squibb.

Jeremy Evans was promoted to executive vice president and CFO of Helios Technologies, Inc. (NYSE: HLIO), a provider of motion and electronic controls technology. Evans succeeds Michael Connaway, who has left the company after joining Helios on Oct. 13, 2025. The company stated Connaway’s departure is not related to any disagreement. Evans joined Helios on Jan. 24, 2024, and was promoted to chief accounting officer on Sept. 1, 2025. Before joining Helios, he accumulated 25 years of leadership experience with Tech Data, now TD SYNNEX Corporation.

Bryan Kyle was appointed CFO of Conga, a revenue lifecycle management platform provider. Kyle brings over 25 years of financial leadership experience across both private and publicly traded technology companies. Along with executing corporate finance strategies at Conga, he will oversee the financial integration of the planned PROS B2B acquisition.

Big Deal

Deloitte’s "2026 M&A Trends Survey: A Tale of Two Markets" offers an early preview ahead of the full report. As 2025 draws to a close, the survey highlights a clear split in the M&A landscape: deal activity is being driven by fewer but larger transactions. Third-quarter deal value reached $598 billion—the highest in nearly four years—while overall deal volume remained relatively flat. The findings are based on preliminary analysis from more than 1,500 corporate and private equity (PE) dealmakers.

Optimism appears to be returning. One key finding is that many dealmakers forecast a spike in both deal volume and value. Ninety percent of PE respondents and 80% of corporate respondents expect their organizations to do more deals in 2026. Similarly, when asked about anticipated aggregate deal value over the next year, 87% of PE respondents and 81% of corporate respondents expect increases as well.