The Pre-Read

Every department now has access to AI tools. Your colleagues are running their own accounting research and arrive at your desk with generated answers. The problem is that those answers often miss the specific regulatory context at hand and you are left spending valuable time explaining why an AI output does not apply to the current business reality.


At Workiva Amplify 2026, leaders from Franklin Templeton, CBRE, UPS, and MCR Hotels sat down to discuss the real barriers stalling enterprise rollouts. They explain why the actual bottleneck comes down to trust. Luckily, they joined the Pre-Read to break down the exact strategies their teams use every day to verify outputs and build a reliable data foundation.


The executives cover a range of practical solutions for modern finance leaders:
How to handle business partners who act like armchair CPAs
The reason human oversight must happen before a model ever touches your data
Ways to expand team capacity and cut manual reporting without adding new headcount
Why an idea that failed five years ago might actually work today

The process of teaching critical thinking to junior accountants who skip manual data entry

Add The Pre-Read to your regular rotation on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or YouTube to hear more strategies and relatable stories from the finance world.


#CFO #InternalAudit #FinanceLeadership #ThePreRead #WorkivaAmplify #Workiva

If you assume AI was the biggest shock to finance teams this past year, you’d be in good company. But there’s more to that story. When we caught up with leaders at Amplify, almost nobody pointed to AI by itself. The real surprise is the constant, steady drip of volatility.

For part one of our Workiva Amplify series, The Pre-Read brings together four executives to talk about how they lead when the chaos feels constant. Three of our guests believe this rapid churn is the new normal, while one is betting the dust will eventually settle.

Join Lindsey Oshita (Franklin Templeton), Jeff Driggs (CBRE), Mike Callino (UPS), and Brandon Buhler (MCR Hotels) as they break down how to actually plan for the unplanned.

In this episode:
Why managing strictly for today sets your team up to fail
The case for why the rapid pace of change brought by AI will actually slow down
How to build a proactive team that constantly asks what could go wrong?
Why you need to question the “why” behind every new request before doing the work

Subscribe to The Pre-Read on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Chief sustainability officer headcount fell about 10% in the 2026 Chief Sustainability Officer Report, the first decline in 16 years. At the same time, sustainability headcount inside business units grew 42%.

The work is spreading across the business, and CSOs are moving closer to the CFO.

Mandi McReynolds, Chief Sustainability Officer at Workiva, sits down with Ellen Weinreb, author of the Weinreb Group's 2026 Chief Sustainability Officer Report, and Sophie Beckham, Chief Sustainability Officer at International Paper, to discuss where the headcount went and why more CSOs now report through finance.

In this episode:

Why a leaner corporate sustainability team can carry the same scope
How headcount reporting lines shifted
Why CSOs are reporting to finance
What research says CSOs need beyond budget and headcount
Which skill CSOs should build heading into 2027

Subscribe to The Pre-Read on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts.

There is a version of the "AI in audit" conversations that claims AI is replacing practitioners and the profession is being disrupted overnight. Former AICPA Auditing Standards Board member Jeff Rapaglia reframes the AI hype: stop worrying about falling behind, and start worrying about over-relying on automated tools.

Jeff joins Steve Soter and Alyssa Zucker to reframe the real threat of automation bias, and blindly trusting automated tools while failing to challenge the results. He breaks down why automated platforms taking over routine processing actually elevates human skepticism, making auditor judgment the most vital asset in the room.



In this episode:
Why automated platforms doing 80% of routine workflows makes the remaining 20% of human critical thinking essential
Why regulators like the PCAOB will always demand auditors explain the "why" behind their testing, whether using Excel or an AI model
Why you should stop worrying about being left behind and start worrying about accepting unchecked AI outputs
Why young auditors starting out in an AI-native environment have a structural edge over legacy habits

Subscribe to The Pre-Read on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts!

Most leaders wait for certainty before they make decisions. Tracy Nolan, SVP at Humana, says that is the biggest mistake a leader can make in a crisis.

Tracy has led through some of the highest-stakes moments in corporate crisis management, including one of the largest mergers in telecom history during the COVID-19 pandemic. She joins The Pre-Read to talk about what leadership actually requires when the answers aren’t ready yet.

In this episode:

• Why clarity matters more than certainty in a crisis
• What Tracy learned about the personal cost of leading through crisis
• Why she interviews for curiosity and adaptability over experience
• What CFOs and their teams need most when volatility becomes constant
• How to protect yourself from burnout when crisis is the baseline, instead of the exception