By playing, you agree to uListen's Terms and Privacy Policy and YouTube's Terms of Service.
a16zHow AI Is Turning Figma’s Finance Team Into Builders
Summaries, chapters, transcripts, and FAQs on this page are made by uListen, not YouTube.
Episode Details
EPISODE INFO
- Released
- November 5, 2026
- Duration
- 50m
- Channel
- a16z
- Watch on YouTube
- ▶ Open ↗
EPISODE DESCRIPTION
AI is moving finance from reconciling what happened last month to helping decide what the business should do next. Figma CFO Praveer Melwani argues that the best finance teams are becoming builders themselves, automating repetitive work so they can spend more time understanding customers, running experiments, and shaping strategy. Praveer joins a16z’s Seema Amble and Ivan Makarov to share what that shift looks like inside Figma, from collections and expense analysis to M&A diligence, where the corp dev team now uses AI to prototype products and simulate how Figma leaders might challenge an investment memo. They discuss why AI “slop” is a real risk, how Figma decides what to build versus buy, and why successful internal experiments eventually need a centralized systems layer to turn one-off agents into reliable infrastructure. They also get into what this means for hiring the next generation of finance leaders. Praveer’s bar isn’t simply whether someone can use AI. It’s whether they can understand the business, interrogate the output, communicate clearly, and use automation without outsourcing their thinking. Timestamps: 00:00 Intro 00:54 How automation has changed the finance role 07:32 What makes a great finance hire 10:16 Workflows Figma’s finance team has automated 15:04 Build vs. buy, and calling out AI slop 19:32 Turning one-off agents into shared systems 26:25 Who owns the metric definitions? 30:24 AI tools as a recruiting perk 33:10 More time for strategy 38:26 What changes in the next 12–18 months 46:38 Where to start with finance automation Resources: Figma: https://www.figma.com/ You Need a New CFO: https://www.a16z.news/p/you-need-a-new-cfo Follow Praveer Melwani on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/praveer-melwani/ Follow Seema Amble on X: https://x.com/seema_amble Follow Ivan Makarov on X: https://x.com/IvanoMakSF Stay Updated: If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to like, subscribe, and share with your friends! Find a16z on X: https://twitter.com/a16z Find a16z on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/a16z Listen to the a16z Show on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5bC65RDvs3oxnLyqqvkUYX Listen to the a16z Show on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/a16z-podcast/id842818711 Follow our host: https://x.com/eriktorenberg Please note that the content here is for informational purposes only; should NOT be taken as legal, business, tax, or investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security; and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any a16z fund. a16z and its affiliates may maintain investments in the companies discussed. For more details please see http://a16z.com/disclosures.
SPEAKERS
Praveer Melwani
guestCFO at Figma, focused on modern finance operations and automation.
Seema Amble
hosta16z podcast host and investor covering software and company building.
Ivan Makarov
hosta16z partner who advises portfolio companies on operations, finance, and scaling.
EPISODE SUMMARY
In this episode of a16z, featuring Praveer Melwani and Seema Amble, How AI Is Turning Figma’s Finance Team Into Builders explores AI pushes Figma finance from reporting to building automated systems The conversation argues that AI is pushing finance leaders toward building automation and systems, repositioning finance as an operational, insight-generating partner rather than a compliance “traffic cop.”
RELATED EPISODES
