What Happened at Amplify 2025

Key takeaways:

• This year's Workiva Amplify conference brought together 2,200+ professionals focused on finance, risk, and sustainability
• Business leaders shared insights on how trusted data, tailored AI, and assurance are key to business resiliency
• Rethinking assumptions and embracing innovation responsibly is not only crucial for adapting to a rapidly changing environment but also for continuous improvement-personally and professionally

What do you get when more than 2,200 leaders across finance, risk, and sustainability come together for three days in Washington, D.C.? Another amazing Amplify Americas, packed with inspiring speakers and engaging discussions focused on hot topics impacting the office of the CFO. Key themes revolved around data and AI, the role of human expertise in AI implementation and data usage, and how robust assurance practices drive confident decision-making.

Data is fuel for AI

Top of mind at this year's conference was AI's immense potential-but without well-structured, accessible, and trustworthy data, AI's capabilities are limited. As Alexander Davis, Deputy CFO of Pie Insurance, noted during Tuesday's general session, "AI is this great enabler that sits atop whatever data we have. If the data is no good, the result is no good. You lose all the value of it."

Another common theme at Amplify: AI is about augmenting human capabilities, not replacing them. To deliver a more collaborative AI experience, Workiva CEO Julie Iskow and CTO David Haila introduced the Workiva platform's new agentic AI extensions: Intelligent Finance, Intelligent GRC, and Intelligent Sustainability. Workiva AI users will be able to access an increasing number of AI tools that are:

• Secure: backed by the Workiva commitment to responsible data stewardship so your data stays yours
• Seamless: accessible across the entire Workiva platform where your most important work and data already resides
• Specialized: designed for the unique challenges and high stakes use-cases faced by finance, risk, and sustainability teams

"At Workiva, we believe the future of work is powered by data and AI-both governed by human oversight," said David. He also reinforced Workiva's commitment to accuracy by design, "giving you confidence that what you're seeing is correct, traceable, and backed by data you can trust."

In addition to a new wave of agentic AI, the Workiva team introduced a host of new features such as range linking, array formulas, integrated workflow management, historical data roll forward, and more.

AI's impact on finance, audit, and sustainability

Conversations throughout the conference revolved around AI-from the benefits you can reap when AI technology and human talent come together to the need for AI governance and guardrails.

Mike Callino, Head of Internal Audit at Braze, believes AI "will truly disrupt the end-to-end audit life cycle." He predicts that agentic AI solutions will soon play a role in each part of the process, including planning, field work, reporting, and remediation. As AI agents go into production, Mike advised: "You really want to have a QA mechanism to make sure that the agent's not hallucinating, that there's not a sense of bias that is introduced. As an auditor, it's always about trusting but verifying. [AI] agents are robots with a brain. You want to make sure they're going to stay within their guardrails."

Kathy Rostkowski, Chief Sustainability Officer at McCormick, shared how her team is adapting with technology. "We're engaged in the process of reinventing work using AI to deliver outcomes more efficiently and effectively," she said. "That means having those controls in place, but it also means simplifying our processes and leveraging generative AI and other advanced automated solutions with those guardrails to improve our work. We're partnering that with updating and upskilling our employees to have a future-ready workforce."

Deepa Rao, Sustainability Governance and Climate Action Leader of Cognizant, also said AI brings opportunities to expand your role. "You need to be the human in the loop trying to understand the decision that the AI is giving…but I think the hard work that you or your team used to do is now outsourced to AI and you can now insource your own work as a strategic advisor."

The role of rethinking

This year's Amplify went well beyond technology and training. Organizational psychologist, bestselling author, and podcaster Adam Grant delivered a keynote on how to get better and faster at rethinking than we ever have-absolutely essential in today's environment. In a fireside chat, Adam and Julie discussed the concepts of productive procrastination and how to balance innovation in risk-averse professions like accounting, finance, audit, and sustainability. Some takeaways from Adam included:

• Cultivate a "challenge" network. Surround yourself with the people who give you tough love and ask the hard questions.
• Seek advice not feedback. Unlike feedback that's based on the past, advice is more actionable in the present.
• Think more like a scientist. Be curious and look for reasons to be wrong, not right. The faster you can recognize you're wrong, the faster you are to being right.

Amplify travels to Las Vegas in 2026

That recaps Amplify 2025-our biggest conference yet! Want to be a part of the action next year? Amplify will be heading to Las Vegas Sept. 14-16, 2026. (And in case you missed it, earlier we announced Amplify in Europe will be taking place in London June 3-4, 2026!)

Please visit our events page to keep track of everything coming your way, and bookmark the Amplify site to follow the latest Amplify information as it is released. You can also (re)watch this year's general session content here until Oct. 10.

Thank you to everyone who joined us in D.C. and online-and to our customers, partners, and team members who came together and made this year's event one for the books.

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