Good morning. Airbnb CFO Ellie Mertz has witnessed the company evolve from a disruptive startup to a global travel platform since she joined in 2013. Now, she’s helping lead its next transformation—infusing AI into both operations and corporate decision-making.
Speaking with Fortune’s leadership editor Ruth Umoh on the Next to Lead vodcast, Mertz said Airbnb’s most tangible efficiency gains have come from AI-powered customer service. Last year, the company rolled out an automated agent that assists guests and hosts with support inquiries. The tool has reduced the number of contacts that require a human agent while improving satisfaction scores. “It gets guests and hosts what they need very quickly,” Mertz said, adding that Airbnb plans to keep investing in the technology.
AI is also reshaping how Mertz’s own finance team operates. Within her organization, AI tools are democratizing access to data at Airbnb, No. 382 on the Fortune 500. Corporate teams that once relied on analysts to pull reports can now surface insights independently, enabling “more thoughtful analysis and decision-making,” she said.
For Mertz, AI’s value lies not in replacing judgment but in speeding its path. “There’s an acceleration in decision-making where we’ve leveraged AI to get the appropriate data collected,” she said.
When it comes to balancing automation with human expertise, Mertz sees AI as a way to elevate—not erode—career potential. “There’s another step change coming,” she said. “We’ll be able to, frankly, create better careers for individuals because a lot of the more rote tasks are taken care of for them.”
To learn more about Mertz’s approach to AI, and how she’s playing a pivotal role at Airbnb, which once disrupted the hotel industry and now aims to become a one-stop shop for all your travel needs, you can watch the complete episode of Next to Lead here.
Sheryl Estrada
sheryl.estrada@fortune.com
Leaderboard
Deric Eubanks, CFO and treasurer of Ashford Inc., an alternative asset management company, plans to retire and will step down from his role at the company and its advised REITs, Ashford Hospitality Trust Inc. (NYSE: AHT) and Braemar Hotels & Resorts Inc. (NYSE: BHR), effective March 31. He will continue to assist the company, as senior managing director, with financial and transitional matters until June 30. Eubanks joined the company in 2003 and has served as CFO for the past 12 years. After Eubanks steps down as CFO, Justin Coe, chief accounting officer, will assume the role of principal financial officer of the company and its advised REITs.
Mark Suchinski was appointed CFO of GXO Logistics, Inc. (NYSE: GXO), a contract logistics provider, effective April 1. Suchinski is a financial leader with more than three decades of experience. Before GXO, Suchinski served as CFO for The GEO Group, Inc.. He also previously served as CFO of Spirit AeroSystems. Earlier in his career, he served as chief accounting officer at Home Products International and Controller at US Freightways.
Big Deal
Strata Decision Technology’s 2026 CFO Outlook for Financial Institutions is a report that examines the key risks, investment priorities, and performance drivers defining the year ahead for U.S. banks and credit unions.
A key finding: 86% of finance leaders identified AI as the factor expected to have the biggest impact on the long-term future of financial institutions. Most institutions, however, remain in early planning or implementation stages of AI adoption, underscoring a significant readiness gap, according to Strata.
About 78% of leaders surveyed reported decreasing expenses as a core strategy, with 68% pointing to process automation.
When asked about specific risk exposures, respondents ranked interest rates highest, followed by credit risk, cyber and data governance, and regulatory or policy changes. Seventy-one percent of respondents projected commercial loans as the leading driver of profitability growth in 2026, with deposits and consumer loans following at 26% each and wealth management at 21%.
Going deeper
“Why Women’s Networks Are Stronger During Crisis” is the topic of a new episode of Wharton’s Ripple Effect podcast.
When organizations face disruption, men and women respond differently to protect their professional networks, according to new research from Wharton professor Tiantian Yang. During mergers and acquisitions, Yang finds that men tend to expand their networks by forming new connections with other men, while women strengthen existing relationships with other women, increasing trust and reciprocity during uncertain times.
Her research challenges the assumption that women’s networks are inherently limiting and offers new insight into how organizations should think about integration, trust, and long-term career strategy during restructuring.
Overheard
"It will help the plumbers maybe do their job better. They can feed in the symptoms of the problem, and it will give the diagnostics, and it’s probably a broken pipe in the wall, and may help them do their job better. That’s the intelligence assisting part. But you still would need the plumber.”
—Nobel Prize-winning Professor Joseph Stiglitz told Fortune in an interview regarding the use of AI. Stiglitz compares his own use of AI as “IA” for intelligence assisting. AI will supplement labor in the future, and plumbing is a prime example, he said. Stiglitz's 2024 book is The Road to Freedom: Economics and the Good Society.
