The UI Layer Is Gone: Welcome to Agentic FP&A | Austin Gardner-Smith, Drivepoint

AI is changing FP&A from a tool-assisted workflow into something closer to an operating system for business planning.In this episode of Terminal Value, Nik Singh sits down with Austin Gardner-Smith, Founder & CEO of Drivepoint, to discuss why financial planning and forecasting are especially critical in consumer, retail, and CPG businesses.The conversation covers why forecasting can be “life or death” when inventory, cash flow, and margins are on the line; why vertical software may beat horizontal FP&A tools; how AI changes the value proposition of SaaS; and what happens to finance teams as software moves from organizing work to actually doing the work.Drivepoint is building agentic planning software for consumer and retail brands, helping teams connect data across Shopify, Amazon, retailers, ERP systems, inventory systems, and finance workflows.Chapters:00:00 — Why forecasting is life or death in retail and CPG00:50 — Welcome to Terminal Value01:00 — What Drivepoint is building01:20 — Why this is about more than FP&A software01:50 — What FP&A actually does inside the CFO office04:10 — The evolution of FP&A tools: Oracle, Anaplan, Adaptive, Workday, Pigment06:30 — What Drivepoint does differently07:50 — From financial models to proactive scenario planning09:50 — Why Drivepoint focuses on consumer and retail12:30 — Why inventory makes forecasting high stakes13:40 — How AI changes FP&A for business leaders15:40 — Trust, permissions, and governed access in AI finance tools16:30 — Why the UI layer is collapsing17:20 — Why data quality matters more in AI-native software19:30 — How software pricing may change in an AI world22:30 — Will Anthropic or OpenAI build this?25:10 — How AI changes finance team org design27:10 — Where Drivepoint goes next28:40 — Nik’s closing thoughts: context, vertical AI, and where software value accruesTopics covered:FP&A softwareVertical AIAgentic planningRetail and CPG forecastingInventory planningStrategic financeOffice of the CFOSaaS pricing modelsAI and finance jobsData quality and context layersDrivepointSubscribe to Terminal Value for deep dives on where value accrues across AI, software, and markets.#investing #retailtech #venturecapital