Why CFOs should focus on closing the AI ​​trust gap

Potential corporate uses artificial intelligence and generative AI have garnered a lot of attention in recent months. If AI is going to be the next business game-changer, employees need to have confidence in what it can do and how it is implemented, or your transformation efforts may falter. That’s why it’s important to pay attention to the human side of the equation, and Workday CFO Zane Rowe sees an opportunity to close what finance leaders call Workday’s AI trust gap.

“If you think about the opportunity that AI presents to everyone, it’s quite significant and there’s a lot of excitement at the corporate level and at the leadership level,” he said in an interview at the 2024 World Economic Forum annual meeting. “But what (Workday’s) research highlights, perhaps unexpectedly, is the gap between leaders and corporate sponsors and the average individual in a company.”

Rowe cited Workday 2024 global research “Closing the Artificial Intelligence Trust Gap”. The survey commissioned by Workday and conducted by FT Longitude among 1,375 business leaders and 4,000 employees worldwide revealed the following results:

• 62% of business leaders (senior executives or their direct reports) welcome AI, and 52% of employees express the same sentiment.
• 23% of employees do not trust that their organization puts employee interests above their own when implementing AI.
• 70% of business leaders agree that AI should be developed to allow for human review and intervention.

According to Rowe, the study’s findings present an opportunity for organizations to improve their relationships with employees. “It ensures that companies understand what this opportunity means to them, but then do a good job and explain it to their workforce,” he said.

Rowe said the role of a CFO has always focused on data and numbers, as well as how that data is compiled and used to produce forecasts and financial reports. Technology promises greater efficiency and productivity, and value creation.

“What AI can do is allow us to do a lot of these things in much better ways and think about: How do we grow this business?” Rowe said.

promise Artificial intelligence in finance It requires leaders to imagine new ways to use data to drive growth. This also means CFOs need to form partnerships to become financial futurists.

Rowe added that building trust is a critical component of this goal. “How can we build credibility as a CFO?” Rowe asked. “How do we think about transparency and how do we communicate internally and externally about the ways we use this data in a transformative way?”

“It’s time for company CFOs, in particular, to have confidence in this data so that everyone in the company can understand how this data is used and how important it is.”

Noting that Workday clearly lays out its approach, responsible artificial intelligenceRowe praised the trust the company’s transparent approach creates in customers. This trust component is a crucial part of driving the adoption of AI and doing so successfully.

“There’s no doubt there’s a lot you can do, but it really comes down to the fundamentals of data platforms,” Rowe said. “And if you don’t address that trust gap, if you don’t get the average employee and the average leader to really understand how things are being used, it’s going to be challenging. This is an effort that we all need to put forward and think about what you need to do to help scale AI.” .”