Everyone’s talking about AI in finance. You’ve half-decided you already missed it.

A lot of finance leaders think they’ve fallen behind on AI. Usually the real gap sits one level down - in the basics underneath it.

This is a working lunch about where to actually start, with Shaye Thyer, Tyler Caskey and Tom Hunter - three people who rebuild finance functions for a living. You’ll leave with a first move you can make before the weekend.

This lunch is for you if you’re a CFO, financial controller or head of finance who knows AI matters, has maybe had a poke at a tool or two, and wants a straight answer instead of another hype thread. You might recognise yourself here:

You’ve watched everyone post their AI wins and started to wonder what you missed.
You tried a tool once, weren’t sure it was safe with real numbers, and left it there.
Your month-end still runs long and your data lands late - and part of you knows that’s the real problem.
Someone on your team is running AI off their personal login, and you don’t love what happens the day they leave.
Your AI spend is creeping and nobody’s really watching it.

Over lunch we’ll get practical:

Real AI use cases in finance, and how they actually get done
What to fix in your function before you automate anything
How to set AI up so it survives someone leaving (not built on one person’s personal login)
Keeping a lid on the cost as usage grows
Open Q&A, and time to share what’s working for you

No vendor pitch from the stage. No lanyards. You bring what you’ve tried, and nothing gets oversold.

It won’t suit you if you already run AI across a well-governed finance function and want advanced tooling, if you came for a vendor demo or a tool to buy on the day, or if you want the version where AI fixes everything and nothing needs sorting first.

The details

When: Wednesday 14 October 2026, 12:00–2:00pm

Where: Sydney CBD (we’ll send the exact venue when you register)

Seats: 40

Tickets: $5 - and every cent goes to the Australian Literacy and Numeracy Foundation.

Hosted by:

Shaye Thyer - Consulting CFO and financial strategist, founder of Pallas.
Tyler Caskey - Partner at TheBeanCounters; finance systems and automation specialist.
Tom Hunter - Founder of Story Recruitment and host of The CFO Track podcast.

All confirmation emails and event communication will come from Shaye, Tyler and Tom at hello@wearepallas.io - be sure to add this to your contacts.

All proceeds will be donated to the Australian Literacy and Numeracy Foundation.

Contact the host of AI for CFOs: You’re Not as Behind as You Think