When businesses first started using artificial intelligence (AI) for business operations, they were often siloed into performing specific tasks— one model for inventory management, another for pricing, and several for customer service.

But today’s AI models differ significantly from those of years past. With generative AI and open-weight AI, businesses can use best-of-breed specialized AI  to streamline across their business operations.

There are three factors for moving toward more efficient AI models:

1. With open-weight AI, companies will have the ability to fine-tune already-powerful models across various industries.
2. Recently, companies have been working on developing smaller, more efficient AI models, which will enable faster and more cost-effective data processing.
3. The increased availability of cloud computing resources allows companies to deploy and scale AI systems without extensive infrastructure costs.

The result is a new generation of AI that can seamlessly integrate into business operations, optimizing processes and scaling with organizational needs through an evolution that is transforming the business world. Companies are already leveraging these advancements to streamline operations, enhance decision-making, and reduce operational costs.

As AI efficiency continues to improve, adopting these solutions is no longer a matter of speculation. It’s actively reshaping the way businesses function.

Shift to Smaller, More Efficient AI Models

Over the years, AI models have become increasingly powerful, but they have required significant infrastructure to support them as well. Today, the trend is shifting toward smaller, more efficient AI models that provide near-state-of-the-art results while consuming fewer resources. Within the right agentic framework, these compact models are capable of performing complex tasks such as decision-making and delivering insights with remarkable speed.

The move to smaller models is driven by the need for businesses to optimize costs while improving performance. By reducing the size of AI models without compromising their capabilities, companies can run advanced systems on more affordable hardware. This shift also has the added benefit of reducing latency, which is particularly important in industries such as retail, finance, and hospitality, where real-time data processing is particularly crucial.

For businesses, the implications are clear: smaller, more efficient AI models not only reduce the need for extensive computing power but also make AI more accessible, enabling faster implementation and scaling without the high costs traditionally associated with large-scale AI systems.

A Shift Toward Customization

As AI technology matures, businesses are increasingly moving toward customized solutions tailored to their specific needs. While off-the-shelf AI tools can be effective for general tasks, they often lack the depth and specificity required to tackle industry-specific challenges.

More companies are focused on developing AI models trained on their unique datasets, optimizing them for the specific nuances of their operations. This industry-specific approach has led to faster deployments and more relevant AI systems that deliver precise, actionable insights. Whether it’s refining customer segmentation models in retail, improving predictive maintenance in manufacturing, or enhancing personalized guest experiences in hospitality, customized AI models are proving more effective in meeting the specific needs of these sectors.

For businesses, the key takeaway is that AI isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution. Developing tailored AI models allows companies to gain a competitive edge by addressing their unique operational challenges with precision. This move toward customization is not only accelerating the deployment of AI but also increasing its relevance and impact across different industries.

Open-Weight Models

The introduction of open-weight AI models has further accelerated the efficiency of AI applications. Unlike closed systems, which are controlled by a single vendor and often require significant licensing fees, open-weight models allow businesses to access, modify, and deploy AI systems that are customized for their needs.

One of the primary advantages of open-weight AI is the level of control it gives businesses over their systems. Companies can adapt these models to fit their specific operational needs, fine-tuning them to process proprietary data more effectively. Additionally, companies can host open-weight AI models on their own infrastructure, keeping sensitive data in-house while still benefiting from cutting-edge AI capabilities.

The shift to open-weight models has not only reduced the costs associated with proprietary AI solutions but also made AI more accessible to smaller businesses. With the ability to scale AI models more easily and make adjustments as needed, companies can innovate without being dependent on third-party vendors.

Financial, Operational Benefits of AI Efficiency

The increased efficiency of AI models directly impacts a company’s bottom line. Smaller, more efficient models reduce the need for costly hardware and cloud services, enabling businesses to lower their operational costs. Furthermore, the ability to build custom models tailored to specific business functions means AI can deliver more precise results, thereby enhancing decision-making and overall performance.

The impact of AI efficiency isn’t limited to cost savings. By streamlining business processes, AI enables companies to automate routine tasks, minimize human errors, and expedite the time-to-market (TTM) for new products and services. Whether it’s optimizing supply chains, refining marketing strategies, or improving customer support, the financial and operational benefits of AI efficiency are clear.

For organizations already using AI, adopting more efficient models offers an opportunity to further optimize operations, refine existing AI systems, and ensure that AI investments deliver maximum return. As AI continues to evolve, businesses that embrace these advancements will be better positioned to meet the demands of a competitive marketplace.

Key Competitive Advantage

The shift toward more efficient AI models is changing the landscape of business operations. Smaller, more efficient models, customized AI solutions, and open-weight systems are making it possible for businesses to harness the full potential of AI while reducing costs and improving performance. This new generation of AI is not only more accessible but also more adaptable to the specific needs of different industries.

For businesses, integrating these advanced AI systems into operations represents a significant opportunity. As AI continues to evolve, the companies that leverage these advancements will be better equipped to stay ahead of the competition, improve efficiency, and achieve long-term success.

AI efficiency is no longer a future goal but a present reality. Embracing these technologies today is the key to thriving in an increasingly data-driven and competitive market.

She joined CrowdStrike when it was pre-revenue and played a key role in strategic finance from Series A-1 to its initial public offering (IPO) in 2019. The company quickly grew to more than $4 billion in annual recurring revenue. She also helped navigate the aftermath of the company’s global IT outage last year. 

“If I think back to high school, I loved watching my bank account, and I had my spreadsheets and my budget,” Buchanan said, reflecting on her path to CFO. After getting a job out of high school and putting herself through college, she landed a position at a CPA firm where she realized accounting was “always part of my DNA.”

Buchanan is set to help lead Dataminr, a real-time AI platform, down the path to an IPO. The platform analyzes more than one million public data sources—including text, images, and video—to detect and inform users of emerging events, risks, and threats. The company—which counts NATO and OpenAI among its prominent and wide-ranging client pool—raised $100 million in funding from Fortress in April and $85 million in new funding in March, following a $475 million round in 2021 that valued Dataminr at $4.1 billion.

Buchanan’s decision to join Dataminr was cemented after meeting founder and CEO Ted Bailey and experiencing the company’s mission-driven culture. “I really wanted to replicate that same feeling and excitement I felt many years ago with CrowdStrike, and I really feel as though I found that with Dataminr,” she said.

Her immediate focus is initially on building out new routes to market, targeting new customer personas, and driving product innovation. And then with the eye on going public, she’s working to strength Dataminr’s systems, processes, and functions to prepare for a potential IPO.

“It’s about making sure we can check all the boxes from a public reporting standpoint,” she explained, drawing on her experience guiding CrowdStrike from pre-revenue to a multibillion-dollar public company.

Lessons from the IPO Journey

Going public is “one of the most amazing experiences” an organization can have. However, the work isn’t done. “Oftentimes, the hardest part is after the IPO—getting to that predictability and public reporting cadence, being able to continuously tell the story you want to tell the public market,” she explained. Post-IPO, Buchanan stresses the importance of not sacrificing long-term success for short-term gains and ensuring that internal processes and external messaging are aligned.

As Dataminr expands internationally, Buchanan sees robust risk management and compliance as top priorities. She emphasizes the importance of identifying risks—including financial, cybersecurity, and supply chain—in areas where Dataminr’s real-time intelligence platform provides early warnings.

Bailey said in a statement that Buchanan has deep financial acumen, operational rigor, and high-growth experience, all “skills that will be instrumental.”

Mentorship and giving back

Buchanan’s preparation for the CFO seat began at CrowdStrike. She names Gregg Marston, the original CFO and cofounder of CrowdStrike, and current CFO Burt Podbere as her mentors. She believes in paying it forward.

To that end, she recently joined the board of ASAPP, an AI company focused on transforming customer service. Outside of work, Buchanan is committed to supporting foster children and families in need. “I was in foster care from a very young age and, fortunately, adopted by my aunt and uncle and was raised within my family,” she said.

Along with philanthropy, Buchanan enjoys running and spending time with her husband and children.

Sheryl Estrada
sheryl.estrada@fortune.com

Leaderboard

Chad Spooner was appointed CFO of MiniMed, in advance of its intended separation into a standalone, public company, health care technology company, Medtronic plc (NYSE: MDT), announced on Tuesday. Effective July 14, Spooner will be responsible for overseeing the finance function for Medtronic Diabetes and supporting initiatives as it prepares to become fully independent. Most recently, Spooner served as CFO at BIC, a global consumer goods provider. He started his career at General Electric, where he spent a decade in management positions of increasing responsibility in corporate audit and financial planning, as well as in a senior finance role in GE Energy. 

Alex Vari was promoted to EVP and CFO of MainStreet Bank. MainStreet Bancshares, Inc. (Nasdaq: MNSB & MNSBP) is the holding company for MainStreet Bank. Vari was most recently the chief accounting officer, and before that, VP of accounting and finance manager. Most recently, he also led the process for developing and implementing the Company’s Sarbanes-Oxley internal control framework.

Big Deal

Workday, Inc.’s newly released Contract Intelligence Index Report highlights a widespread issue: many companies lack clarity about who is responsible for managing contracts. The research finds that 76% of employees surveyed don’t fully understand who oversees contracts.

This confusion often stems from uncertainty over whether the vendor relationship manager, legal team, or procurement department is ultimately in charge. According to Workday, when contract ownership is unclear, companies risk losing the full value of their agreements.

A key finding of the report is that a lack of insight into customer renewals, upsell, and cross-sell opportunities can hurt revenue growth. Half of all legal (50%) and enterprise employee (49%) respondents say they have lost money due to unintended auto-renewals—with sales and marketing departments hit hardest (60%).

The report also found that contracts are primarily stored across shared drives (70% for legal, 50% for non-legal) and CRM systems (62% for legal, 53% for non-legal), as well as on individual desktops, in email accounts, and even as paper records.

“With the rise of AI agents, we can finally turn contracts into living, intelligent assets,” said Jerry Ting, VP, head of agentic AI and Evisort at Workday.

The survey, commissioned by Workday and conducted by Provoke Insights, included 1,250 U.S.-based legal and non-legal enterprise employees from organizations across North America, Asia-Pacific (APAC), and Europe.

Going deeper

“Amazon’s tariff-clouded, seller-confused, AI-researched, weirdest Prime Day ever” is a new Fortune report by Jason Del Rey. 

From the report: “The 2025 Prime Day version is a four-day long event that kicks off on Tuesday July 8, up from two days in 2024, and—as the name would still suggest—a single day affair during the inaugural 2015 event.

Like many businesses these days, independent Amazon sellers, who account for around 60% of Amazon sales, are contending with the dilemma of how to handle the ongoing U.S.-induced tariff chaos, and how it should or shouldn’t impact their Prime Day strategies.

In conversations with Fortune, sellers have relayed two main strategies.”

Overheard

“What I see is a business environment defined not by one crisis or even by periodic crises, but by what PwC is calling permacrisis. Trade wars, generative AI disruption, political polarization, supply chain shocks, rising geopolitical risk: it’s a hurricane in every direction.”

—Anne Chow, former CEO of AT&T Business, writes in a Fortune opinion piece, warning leaders not to neglect frontline employees while dealing with “permacrisis”—an extended period of instability and insecurity.

She joined CrowdStrike when it was pre-revenue and played a key role in strategic finance from Series A-1 to its initial public offering (IPO) in 2019. The company quickly grew to more than $4 billion in annual recurring revenue. She also helped navigate the aftermath of the company’s global IT outage last year. 

“If I think back to high school, I loved watching my bank account, and I had my spreadsheets and my budget,” Buchanan said, reflecting on her path to CFO. After getting a job out of high school and putting herself through college, she landed a position at a CPA firm where she realized accounting was “always part of my DNA.”

Buchanan is set to help lead Dataminr, a real-time AI platform, down the path to an IPO. The platform analyzes more than one million public data sources—including text, images, and video—to detect and inform users of emerging events, risks, and threats. The company—which counts NATO and OpenAI among its prominent and wide-ranging client pool—raised $100 million in funding from Fortress in April and $85 million in new funding in March, following a $475 million round in 2021 that valued Dataminr at $4.1 billion.

Buchanan’s decision to join Dataminr was cemented after meeting founder and CEO Ted Bailey and experiencing the company’s mission-driven culture. “I really wanted to replicate that same feeling and excitement I felt many years ago with CrowdStrike, and I really feel as though I found that with Dataminr,” she said.

Her immediate focus is initially on building out new routes to market, targeting new customer personas, and driving product innovation. And then with the eye on going public, she’s working to strength Dataminr’s systems, processes, and functions to prepare for a potential IPO.

“It’s about making sure we can check all the boxes from a public reporting standpoint,” she explained, drawing on her experience guiding CrowdStrike from pre-revenue to a multibillion-dollar public company.

Lessons from the IPO Journey

Going public is “one of the most amazing experiences” an organization can have. However, the work isn’t done. “Oftentimes, the hardest part is after the IPO—getting to that predictability and public reporting cadence, being able to continuously tell the story you want to tell the public market,” she explained. Post-IPO, Buchanan stresses the importance of not sacrificing long-term success for short-term gains and ensuring that internal processes and external messaging are aligned.

As Dataminr expands internationally, Buchanan sees robust risk management and compliance as top priorities. She emphasizes the importance of identifying risks—including financial, cybersecurity, and supply chain—in areas where Dataminr’s real-time intelligence platform provides early warnings.

Bailey said in a statement that Buchanan has deep financial acumen, operational rigor, and high-growth experience, all “skills that will be instrumental.”

Mentorship and giving back

Buchanan’s preparation for the CFO seat began at CrowdStrike. She names Gregg Marston, the original CFO and cofounder of CrowdStrike, and current CFO Burt Podbere as her mentors. She believes in paying it forward.

To that end, she recently joined the board of ASAPP, an AI company focused on transforming customer service. Outside of work, Buchanan is committed to supporting foster children and families in need. “I was in foster care from a very young age and, fortunately, adopted by my aunt and uncle and was raised within my family,” she said.

Along with philanthropy, Buchanan enjoys running and spending time with her husband and children.

Sheryl Estrada
sheryl.estrada@fortune.com

Leaderboard

Chad Spooner was appointed CFO of MiniMed, in advance of its intended separation into a standalone, public company, health care technology company, Medtronic plc (NYSE: MDT), announced on Tuesday. Effective July 14, Spooner will be responsible for overseeing the finance function for Medtronic Diabetes and supporting initiatives as it prepares to become fully independent. Most recently, Spooner served as CFO at BIC, a global consumer goods provider. He started his career at General Electric, where he spent a decade in management positions of increasing responsibility in corporate audit and financial planning, as well as in a senior finance role in GE Energy. 

Alex Vari was promoted to EVP and CFO of MainStreet Bank. MainStreet Bancshares, Inc. (Nasdaq: MNSB & MNSBP) is the holding company for MainStreet Bank. Vari was most recently the chief accounting officer, and before that, VP of accounting and finance manager. Most recently, he also led the process for developing and implementing the Company’s Sarbanes-Oxley internal control framework.

Big Deal

Workday, Inc.’s newly released Contract Intelligence Index Report highlights a widespread issue: many companies lack clarity about who is responsible for managing contracts. The research finds that 76% of employees surveyed don’t fully understand who oversees contracts.

This confusion often stems from uncertainty over whether the vendor relationship manager, legal team, or procurement department is ultimately in charge. According to Workday, when contract ownership is unclear, companies risk losing the full value of their agreements.

A key finding of the report is that a lack of insight into customer renewals, upsell, and cross-sell opportunities can hurt revenue growth. Half of all legal (50%) and enterprise employee (49%) respondents say they have lost money due to unintended auto-renewals—with sales and marketing departments hit hardest (60%).

The report also found that contracts are primarily stored across shared drives (70% for legal, 50% for non-legal) and CRM systems (62% for legal, 53% for non-legal), as well as on individual desktops, in email accounts, and even as paper records.

“With the rise of AI agents, we can finally turn contracts into living, intelligent assets,” said Jerry Ting, VP, head of agentic AI and Evisort at Workday.

The survey, commissioned by Workday and conducted by Provoke Insights, included 1,250 U.S.-based legal and non-legal enterprise employees from organizations across North America, Asia-Pacific (APAC), and Europe.

Going deeper

“Amazon’s tariff-clouded, seller-confused, AI-researched, weirdest Prime Day ever” is a new Fortune report by Jason Del Rey. 

From the report: “The 2025 Prime Day version is a four-day long event that kicks off on Tuesday July 8, up from two days in 2024, and—as the name would still suggest—a single day affair during the inaugural 2015 event.

Like many businesses these days, independent Amazon sellers, who account for around 60% of Amazon sales, are contending with the dilemma of how to handle the ongoing U.S.-induced tariff chaos, and how it should or shouldn’t impact their Prime Day strategies.

In conversations with Fortune, sellers have relayed two main strategies.”

Overheard

“What I see is a business environment defined not by one crisis or even by periodic crises, but by what PwC is calling permacrisis. Trade wars, generative AI disruption, political polarization, supply chain shocks, rising geopolitical risk: it’s a hurricane in every direction.”

—Anne Chow, former CEO of AT&T Business, writes in a Fortune opinion piece, warning leaders not to neglect frontline employees while dealing with “permacrisis”—an extended period of instability and insecurity.