At this year’s Money 20/20 Conference, OpenAI CFO Sarah Friar shared her thoughts on the growing adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) in financial services, stressing that AI has moved from experimental to mainstream, especially in banking and fintech. Speaking with Ed Ludlow of Bloomberg Technology, Friar underscored AI’s integration in critical business operations across financial institutions, fintech, and large banks, noting that OpenAI’s tools have already become essential.
“AI is happening right now. It’s not experimental,” Friar stated. She pointed out that many financial institutions, including high-profile names, are actively incorporating AI models into their workflows. According to Friar, institutions such as Morgan Stanley are using OpenAI’s language models in their wealth management sectors to enhance productivity and provide more targeted financial advice to clients. Other examples include companies like Klarna, which have turned to AI for customer service improvements. “The CEO of Klarna has been very loud and proud on this front,” she added, citing the increased efficiency AI brings to the company.
Friar noted that the financial sector, among OpenAI’s top verticals, continues to be a leader in AI adoption.
“Financials is probably third,” she shared, adding that the industry’s readiness to embrace technology stems from its familiarity with managing both cost and efficiency. She highlighted that early adopters, such as Morgan Stanley, set a precedent for others, fostering a wave of interest across wealth management and banking sectors. “We’re seeing folks like BBVA using it across their business, and that’s really our message here. It’s just get started, get Enterprise rolled out to organization,” she explained, encouraging financial services to integrate AI solutions at scale.
In addition to discussing industry adoption, Friar offered insight into OpenAI’s pricing model, especially as enterprise clients evaluate the value of AI tools. She shared a real-world example to illustrate the cost-effectiveness of their products: “I was watching a lawyer in action using it to create a brief, and at the end we said to him, ‘What would you have paid for that? Like if you had a paralegal doing that?’ He was like easily $1,000, $2,000 per hour.” This, she pointed out, shows the value AI can deliver even as OpenAI strives to align its pricing to reflect the product’s tangible benefits.
As OpenAI’s CFO, Friar has a dual focus on driving business growth while supporting technological advancements that ensure AI’s responsible use and accessibility. She acknowledged that expanding the use of AI in complex and large-scale environments requires significant investment, especially in compute infrastructure, which forms the backbone of OpenAI’s operations.
“To do that, it’s expensive. We have to invest in large-scale compute,” she explained, which describes OpenAI’s strategy of financing its growth through free cash flows as well as equity and debt financing, an approach designed to keep the company at the cutting edge.
To the future, Friar shared her optimism about OpenAI’s long-term vision, which includes developing models that further enhance user experiences across various sectors, from consumer-facing products to enterprise solutions. In her words: “We want to make sure people can get started, can actually see the outcomes,” she noted, adding that this alignment of value and price is central to the company’s philosophy.
With this strategic approach, Friar suggested that OpenAI is poised not only to expand in the financial services sector but also to reshape the broader landscape of AI applications in business, proving that AI’s transformative potential is indeed here to stay.
