How AI is Changing the Demands on Interim Executives

by Antho­ny Baum­ruk, Part­ner at Valdivia Consult­ing and Head of Finance and VIA – Valdivia Inter­im Associates

When I speak to exec­u­tives and compa­nies about inter­im manage­ment today, there is one topic that is virtu­al­ly impos­si­ble to avoid: arti­fi­cial intelligence.

The ques­tion is no longer whether exec­u­tives should use arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence. What matters far more is who is capa­ble of trans­lat­ing its poten­tial into tangi­ble busi­ness bene­fits. By 2026, AI will no longer be a niche topic confined to IT or digi­tal depart­ments. It is trans­form­ing the way infor­ma­tion is processed, analy­ses are carried out, deci­sions are prepared and busi­ness process­es are scru­ti­nised. This also shifts the demands placed on lead­er­ship – partic­u­lar­ly on those exec­u­tives who, in an inter­im role, must provide direc­tion, make an impact and consis­tent­ly imple­ment changes with­in a short timeframe.

AI compe­tence is more than just tool competence

Today, I do not expect a success­ful inter­im exec­u­tive to be famil­iar with every new AI tool or to follow every tech­no­log­i­cal devel­op­ment in detail.

What is crucial is the abil­i­ty to make sound judge­ments about where AI actu­al­ly creates econom­ic value – and where its use makes no substan­tial contri­bu­tion. This compe­tence is becom­ing signif­i­cant­ly more impor­tant, partic­u­lar­ly in the finance sector. Analy­ses can be prepared more quick­ly, data eval­u­at­ed in a more struc­tured manner, scenar­ios devel­oped more effi­cient­ly and the basis for deci­sion-making prepared with greater preci­sion. At the same time, many compa­nies are seeing a signif­i­cant discrep­an­cy between tech­no­log­i­cal poten­tial and actu­al implementation.

The study “The Digi­tal CFO 2026” by PwC and WHU high­lights this gap: 71 per cent of the CFOs surveyed regard the digi­tal­i­sa­tion of their finance func­tion as a high prior­i­ty. Yet only 20 per cent already consid­er their finance organ­i­sa­tion to be high­ly or very high­ly digi­talised. Further­more, on aver­age, only 6.9 per cent of staff in the finance depart­ments surveyed possess specialised digi­tal or IT skills.

Consid­er­able poten­tial also remains untapped in the use of AI and large language models – includ­ing in fore­cast­ing, report­ing and work­ing capi­tal management.

Deloitte paints a simi­lar picture in its ‘Finance Trends 2026’ report: 63 per cent of the finance exec­u­tives surveyed state that they are already making full use of AI solu­tions with­in their func­tion. Howev­er, only 21 per cent have so far been able to demon­strate a clear­ly measur­able return on investment.

To me, this demon­strates one thing above all: tech­nol­o­gy alone does not yet create busi­ness value. The real exper­tise lies in the trans­la­tion:

• Which process­es are actu­al­ly suit­able for AI?
• Which data is reli­able enough to inform decisions?
• Where do real effi­cien­cy gains arise – and where is there mere­ly the impres­sion of speed?
• Which results need to be crit­i­cal­ly scrutinised?
• And where do new depen­den­cies or risks arise?

These ques­tions are not primar­i­ly tech­ni­cal in nature. They are lead­er­ship questions.

The real exper­tise lies in trans­lat­ing tech­no­log­i­cal possi­bil­i­ties into concrete busi­ness appli­ca­tions, whilst assess­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties, limi­ta­tions and risks in equal measure.

We at Valdivia have already writ­ten about this in our arti­cle “Lead­er­ship in the Age of AI: People Make the Differ­ence”. The central idea from that arti­cle is more rele­vant today than ever: the more AI is inte­grat­ed into oper­a­tional process­es and deci­sion-making work­flows, the more impor­tant judge­ment, crit­i­cal reflec­tion and the abil­i­ty to lead people through change become. Tech­nol­o­gy can struc­ture infor­ma­tion, recog­nise patterns and improve the basis for deci­sion-making. Howev­er, it is still people who must take respon­si­bil­i­ty, set prior­i­ties and stand by their decisions.

At the same time, tradi­tion­al corpo­rate func­tions are chang­ing. Finance, HR, invest­ment and asset manage­ment are not losing their impor­tance – but their role profiles are evolv­ing. Data liter­a­cy, an under­stand­ing of tech­nol­o­gy and the abil­i­ty to embed new ways of work­ing sustain­ably with­in organ­i­sa­tions are increas­ing­ly becom­ing inte­gral parts of modern lead­er­ship. AI compe­tence is there­fore not an addi­tion­al special­ist disci­pline; it is becom­ing part of the profes­sion­al under­stand­ing of leadership.

Inter­im Exec­u­tives as Cata­lysts for Change

In my view, this is precise­ly where a partic­u­lar strength of inter­im manage­ment lies. An expe­ri­enced inter­im exec­u­tive does not mere­ly bring addi­tion­al lead­er­ship capac­i­ty to a compa­ny. He or she usual­ly possess­es a broad range of expe­ri­ence gained from vari­ous organ­i­sa­tions, sectors, struc­tures and trans­for­ma­tion scenar­ios. And it is precise­ly this expe­ri­ence that enables compar­isons to be made.

Inter­im exec­u­tives have often already seen which approach­es work under compa­ra­ble condi­tions – and at which points trans­for­ma­tions stall. Anyone who combines this expe­ri­en­tial knowl­edge with a sound under­stand­ing of the poten­tial and limi­ta­tions of AI can acti­vate signif­i­cant levers with­in a short space of time: scru­ti­n­is­ing process­es more rigor­ous­ly, refin­ing prior­i­ties, prepar­ing deci­sions on a more solid foot­ing and guid­ing teams towards new ways of work­ing. Partic­u­lar­ly in situ­a­tions where change must be achieved under intense time pres­sure, this combi­na­tion of expe­ri­ence, tech­no­log­i­cal insight and the abil­i­ty to deliv­er is of partic­u­lar value.

After all, it is not about deploy­ing as much AI as possi­ble. It is about iden­ti­fy­ing the rele­vant areas of appli­ca­tion and gener­at­ing measur­able impact from them.

Modern lead­er­ship does not mean more control

Modern lead­er­ship must not be confused with an increase in control. Our latest Valdivia Lead­er­ship­Im­pulse on ‘Invis­i­ble Lead­er­ship’ describes a trend that is also gain­ing signif­i­cance in the context of AI: lead­ers are increas­ing­ly becom­ing cata­lysts, points of refer­ence and archi­tects of the broad­er frame­work. Their role is less about making every deci­sion them­selves and more about enabling deci­sion-making capac­i­ty with­in the organ­i­sa­tion. I consid­er this idea to be central, partic­u­lar­ly in the inter­play between people and AI.

For the more tech­nol­o­gy takes over oper­a­tional tasks or prepares deci­sions, the more clear­ly those skills that cannot be auto­mat­ed come to the fore: judge­ment, contex­tu­al under­stand­ing, commu­ni­ca­tion, trust, a sense of respon­si­bil­i­ty and entre­pre­neur­ial thinking.

AI is there­fore not mere­ly chang­ing process­es. At the same time, it is sharp­en­ing our focus on what actu­al­ly consti­tutes good leadership.

“AI will not replace a good leader. Howev­er, it will make the differ­ence between good and mediocre lead­er­ship more appar­ent. The abil­i­ty to trans­late tech­nol­o­gy into value creation remains crucial.”

Conclu­sion

The most success­ful inter­im exec­u­tives of the coming years will not be those who master the great­est number of AI tools. Success will go to those who combine an under­stand­ing of tech­nol­o­gy, busi­ness acumen and lead­er­ship qual­i­ties – and use this to achieve concrete busi­ness impact.

AI is increas­ing­ly becom­ing an inte­gral part of busi­ness value creation. For exec­u­tives, this does not neces­sar­i­ly mean acquir­ing in-depth tech­ni­cal exper­tise. Rather, what is crucial is to assess tech­no­log­i­cal possi­bil­i­ties real­is­ti­cal­ly, deploy them strate­gi­cal­ly and guide organ­i­sa­tions through the asso­ci­at­ed changes.

This applies partic­u­lar­ly to inter­im exec­u­tives: they must quick­ly get their bear­ings, iden­ti­fy rele­vant levers, set prior­i­ties and make an impact with­in a limit­ed time­frame. The crucial ques­tion is there­fore no longer whether exec­u­tives use AI, but whether they are able to turn tech­nol­o­gy into busi­ness impact.

What AI skills do you already expect from an inter­im exec­u­tive today?

With VIA – Valdivia Inter­im Asso­ciates, we provide target­ed support to compa­nies in situ­a­tions where speed, trans­for­ma­tion and the abil­i­ty to deliv­er are essen­tial: during vacan­cies, restruc­tur­ing, turn­arounds, growth phas­es or strate­gic projects. We do not view inter­im manage­ment mere­ly as a stop­gap, but as a target­ed, tempo­rary lead­er­ship resource.

Sources

1. PwC / WHU: The Digi­tal CFO 2026 – Study on the digi­tal­i­sa­tion of the finance func­tion in the DACH region
2. Deloitte: Finance Trends 2026
3. Valdivia Consult­ing GmbH, Newsroom
4. DDIM Market Study 2026, Dachge­sellschaft Deutsches Inter­im Manage­ment e.V. (DDIM).

(Image source: istockphotos.com)