One of the ways Hasbro CFO and Chief Operating Officer Gina Goetter is using artificial intelligence is to help “speed up the synthesizing of information, because there’s just so much of it that comes across our plates” as CFOs, she said during a conference Thursday.

“How many banker decks do you get? Lots of banker decks…and they usually always come five minutes before you’re going into the meeting,” Goetter said during the 2025 CFO Summit hosted by the MIT Sloan School of Management. By leveraging AI tools such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Goetter can run the information through the AI to quickly understand what the bankers are recommending and what her big questions are.

An AI-first approach  

Goetter’s fellow panelists, FedEx CFO John Dietrich and Tapestry CFO and COO Scott Roe, were among those who expressed optimism about the technology’s applications during the summit, where AI remained a top discussion topic for both speakers and attendees. Roe uses AI similarly to Goetter in internal meetings and to plan travel, he said — use cases that come as CFOs, their employees and C-suite peers, mull the best applications of the technology and aim to hedge against its risks.

Goetter shed light on her own use of AI during the panel, coming as Hasbro itself is “leaning into AI and embracing it” at a company-wide level, she said. The soon-to-be Boston-based company’s management team, including herself and its CEO Chris Cocks, are “really encouraging the use of AI day-to-day,” she said.

“We have done a pretty good job this year of making sure that the basic tools…are an employee’s first course of action,” she said, pointing to AI solutions such as Microsoft’s Copilot and ChatGPT. “We’re now getting more mature on leveraging AI in the core underpinnings of how we run the company.”

Since May of 2023, Goetter has served in the dual role of CFO and COO for what she called the “play company,” which is moving its headquarters to Boston from Pawtucket, Rhode Island next year. She joined from motorcycle giant Harley Davidson, where she previously served as finance chief, according to her LinkedIn profile.  

A simple but effective application of AI within the business is demand planning, Goetter said, which has morphed into a process that is “almost entirely AI-driven” compared to the historic process of employees armed with spreadsheets.

Strong partnerships

Though Hasbro has embraced the use of AI, it is “pretty specific” about where it’s applied: as a creative company, “anything that deals with artistry or the creative process, that is protected from AI,” Goetter said. “But every other component of how we run the company, we are trying to be AI-first.”

The company already saw some consumer blowback last year from AI use, such as in development for its Wizards of the Coast or Dungeons & Dragons offerings, according to reports. Hasbro’s gaming segment, which includes Dungeons & Dragons and card games such as Magic the Gathering, has become the growth engine for the business as it looks to transition from a toy to a “play” company, Goetter said Thursday, along with licensing agreements for its intellectual property.  

That change has necessitated some shifts in the company’s own structure, including that of its finance organization. Approximately two years ago, the company split its finance function into two separate groups, one focused on corporate finance—including areas such as audit and tax—and the other on those who “sit next to the business, helping see around corners, helping copilot…all the big decisions that need to be made,” she said.

Hasbro has also turned to partnerships with large-scale businesses such as Disney—the company once again extended its toy license for Star Wars and Marvel in April — and Netflix, where the business is working with fellow toymaker Mattel to create merchandise for surprise smash hit movie, KPop Demon Hunters, according to an Oct. 21 press release.

Although toys for KPop Demon Hunters’ won’t be available for this coming holiday season — the target launch date is spring 2026, Hasbro said in October — Play-Doh Barbie, also the result of a joint project by Hasbro and Mattel, became available this summer, Goetter said Thursday when asked about coming consumer trends that the company is tracking before the holidays.

“The big one that we're excited about is Play-doh Barbie…has launched,” Goetter said. “For those that know, Barbie is Mattel, so it's a very interesting collaboration where you’ve got the two big toy giants collaborating together on what is going to be a pretty big item at the holidays.”