<p>In this episode of <em>The CTO Show with Mehmet</em>, I’m joined by <strong>Ahikam Kaufman</strong>, Co-Founder and CEO of Safebooks.ai, a seasoned finance executive turned entrepreneur with deep experience across startups, public companies, and large-scale acquisitions.</p><p><br></p><p>We explore why finance has lagged behind other functions in digital transformation, how AI is fundamentally reshaping financial governance, and why the modern CFO is becoming a transformation leader, not just a financial steward.</p><p><br></p><p>This conversation goes beyond buzzwords and dives into real-world problems: broken audit trails, fragmented systems, compliance risk, and how AI agents can finally deliver real-time financial truth.</p><p><br></p><p>⸻</p><p><br></p><p><strong>👤 About the Guest</strong></p><p><br></p><p><strong>Ahikam Kaufman</strong> is the Co-Founder and CEO of Safebooks.ai.</p><p>He began his career in accounting, served as a CFO in Silicon Valley startups, experienced multiple acquisitions including by Hewlett-Packard and Intuit, and spent over a decade as an entrepreneur.</p><p><br></p><p>Today, Ahikam is focused on modernizing the Office of the CFO by applying AI to financial data governance, auditability, and compliance at scale.</p><p><br></p><p><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/ahikam-kaufman-688310/">https://www.linkedin.com/in/ahikam-kaufman-688310/</a></p><p><br></p><p>⸻</p><p><br></p><p><strong>🎯 Key Topics Covered</strong></p><p> • Why finance was never designed for today’s data complexity</p><p> • The two biggest blind spots in modern financial organizations</p><p> • What “audit trail” really means and why it’s so hard to achieve</p><p> • How AI agents bridge structured system data and unstructured documents</p><p> • From quote to cash: tracing transactions across fragmented systems</p><p> • Why compliance failures are often data problems, not intent problems</p><p> • The evolving role of the CFO in the AI era</p><p> • Where humans still matter and where machines outperform</p><p> • Why AI makes regulation easier to meet, not harder</p><p> • Practical advice for founders building in finance and compliance</p><p><br></p><p>⸻</p><p><br></p><p><strong>🧠 Key Takeaways</strong></p><p> • Finance teams deal with massive data but are not trained as data teams</p><p> • Fragmented systems create hidden compliance and cash-flow risks</p><p> • AI can monitor 100% of financial transactions, not just samples</p><p> • Real-time governance is now technically possible for the first time</p><p> • CFOs are becoming transformation leaders, not just scorekeepers</p><p> • The future of finance is continuous, automated, and exception-driven</p><p><br></p><p>⸻</p><p><br></p><p><strong>🎓 What You’ll Learn</strong></p><p> • How AI changes financial accuracy from “material” to near-perfect</p><p> • Why most financial errors happen even when teams do “everything right”</p><p> • How AI reduces headcount pressure without removing human oversight</p><p> • What founders must understand before building in fintech or compliance</p><p> • How finance can finally get its own “single pane of glass”</p><p><br></p><p>⸻</p><p><br></p><p><strong>⏱️ Episode Highlights (Timestamps)</strong></p><p> • <strong>00:00</strong> – Ahikam’s journey from CFO to AI founder</p><p> • <strong>05:00</strong> – The two unsolved problems in corporate finance</p><p> • <strong>09:30</strong> – Why audit trails break across modern systems</p><p> • <strong>14:00</strong> – What really goes wrong when financial data is wrong</p><p> • <strong>18:30</strong> – How AI understands contracts and financial documents</p><p> • <strong>24:00</strong> – Humans vs machines in financial decision-making</p><p> • <strong>30:00</strong> – The CFO’s evolving role in AI transformation</p><p> • <strong>36:00</strong> – Regulation, compliance, and AI realities</p><p> • <strong>43:00</strong> – Advice for founders building in finance</p><p><br></p><p>⸻</p><p><br></p><p><strong>🔗 Resources Mentioned</strong></p><p> • <a href="http://Safebooks.ai">Safebooks.ai</a></p><p> • Topics: AI agents, financial audit trails, CFO transformation, data governance</p>