Are CFO and CTO in same room

I have had this conversation more times than I care to count.

A business launches an AI initiative. There is real excitement from the teams involved, vendors are celebrating, the board has given the green light, and everyone feels like they are moving in the right direction. Then six months later, it’s gone, shelved and somehow, the question of why is not asked.

So why do we still see businesses pointing the finger at the technology? In my view, that is usually the wrong conclusion.

The pattern I keep seeing is this: two sets of people making decisions in parallel, rarely together. The CFO is focused on where the money is going. The CTO is focused on where the technology needs to go and because those two conversations are not happening in the same room, the business case starts to fall apart before the project has found its feet.

In a region like the Gulf, where market conditions can shift faster than a project timeline, that gap is not just a management inconvenience, it’s a genuine business risk.

Going even further, in a report from McKinsey & Company, State of AI in GCC Countries, November 2025, they say that more than two thirds of Gulf companies have not moved beyond AI pilots and are stuck in ‘pilot purgatory’.

The “Pilot Purgatory” Finding

A November 2025 McKinsey report found that more than two-thirds of Gulf organisations have not moved beyond AI pilots, with only 11% generating any measurable financial return from their AI investments. The report specifically coined the term “pilot purgatory” to describe the pattern of businesses launching AI initiatives that never scale into real value.

While nearly 90% of Gulf executives plan to increase AI budgets, most have still not aligned their AI roadmaps with clear performance metrics. In other words, more money is going in, but the goalposts for success remain undefined.

Across the region, AI initiatives are being approved, launched, and dropped with very little explanation. Most not failing because the technology was wrong, failing when financial and technology leadership are not aligned from the start. Said a different way, There was no clear framework for knowing when a project was off track or the goalposts for success remain undefined.

Getting this right takes two things: a clear-eyed view of where you are heading, and the transformation leadership to bring finance and technology into the same room and keep them there. Think of it like a referee in a boxing match. Someone has to be in the middle, watching both sides, and willing to step in when things go off course.

So, before your next AI initiative gets the green light, ask yourself honestly: do your financial and technology leaders actually agree on what good looks like? Is there a clear point in the plan where someone has the authority to say “this is not working, we stop here”?

If you are not sure, that is probably a sign that your leadership team is missing a critical voice. Someone who can act as the bridge between transformation ambition and financial reality. I am on the record, many years ago, suggesting corporate boardrooms do not have the CIO at the table, a flaw when the C-Suite relies so much on technology to get the job done.

Something to think about: What does this look like in your organisation?

Are your CFO and CTO/CIO genuinely working from the same page?

If they are then well done!