Chevron CFO Eimear Bonner: AI must compete for capital

The panel discussion at the Fortune Most Powerful Women Summit in Santa Barbara put a spotlight on how large companies are drawing lines around AI spending. Chevron's Eimear Bonner framed AI as one budget line among many, judged on whether it can unlock previously inaccessible oil reserves, cut costs or shorten cycle times. That test is notable because Chevron is also on the supply side of the AI boom: it plans to power a Microsoft data center in West Texas through a 2.67-gigawatt natural gas project.

ServiceNow's Gina Mastantuono pushed the measurement question further, arguing that finance chiefs must also weigh the cost of inaction — falling behind competitors that adopt AI — alongside the usual revenue and profitability gains. ServiceNow itself expects $500 million in savings this year, largely from using its own products, which gives the company a concrete number to point to when it makes that argument.

Nasdaq's Sarah Youngwood described a tiered approach built on a decade of cloud and algorithmic AI investment. She cited data from 3,500 institutions representing $12 trillion in assets as the foundation for serving clients today, and said Nasdaq tracks AI KPIs covering both inputs like training and platform engagement and outcomes like coding speed, client retention and token costs. Together, the three executives' comments suggest that the debate inside large companies is shifting from whether to fund AI toward what evidence counts as proof it is working.