To successfully implement AI, business leaders need to keep “AI literacy” skills top of mind, said Kerry Ryan, senior director of financial services industry marketing at Seismic. The San Diego, California-based company offers an enablement platform aimed at helping businesses boost their revenue using solutions that focus on sales, marketing and technology, according to the company.

For every technology investment, “if it's not deployed correctly, there's not the right kind of learning program attached to it, you're not going to drive as much value out of it and as much adoption and benefit across the enterprise that you're looking to do,” Ryan said in an interview.

Driving maximum ROI

Business leaders are beginning to think more strategically about how to best implement AI across their companies two years after the launch of OpenAI’s generative AI tool, ChatGPT, shone a spotlight on the technology’s potential.

“It's starting with, what is the fastest path, and the smartest path to growth?” Ryan said of first steps when it comes to thinking about AI implementation. “And thinking intentionally around what use case, set of use cases, can you really solve at scale that are really going to help drive your business forward?”

Ryan joined Seismic in May 2022 and has served in her current role at the enablement solutions provider since March, according to her LinkedIn profile. Her previous experience includes roles at Salesforce, Forresters Financial and Citi.

As leaders think about where they can put AI to its best use, having a robust change management strategy is critical. The finance chief plays a role when it comes to drafting their companies’ AI strategy, both when it comes to technology spend and how to best roll it out across their companies, David Le Strat, chief product and technology officer for file transfer service ShareFile previously told CFO Dive.

CFOs are taking on more responsibility when it comes to determining where their companies are spending on new technologies. Many are optimistic about AI’s potential and are leaning into the technology “because they're seeing it as an important engine in terms of unlocking growth across their organizations as well as keeping an eye on expenses and where can AI supplement some costs,” Ryan said.

At the same time, finance chiefs, especially those in public companies, are increasingly “being asked to defend more of the technology investments and the expenditures they're making in that category,” Ryan said.

“There's a real focus on streamlining that technology stack and driving maximum ROI out of every single piece of technology that sits in the stack,” she said.

Keeping AI literacy top of mind

For their technology investments to drive the ROI they’re being asked to deliver, offering their employees the time and the resources to develop “AI literacy” or the skills needed to use the technology is crucial for CFOs.

In a recent survey by Seismic of over 300 professionals in the financial services space, 93% said their company had launched “AI-focused training programs for new employees.” Meanwhile, 91% said they are focusing on improving their own AI literacy skills, the report found.

When thinking about strategic investments, “providing your team with the upskilling access to be successful in using AI regardless of what their function may be” is a critical component, Ryan said.

Creating a strategy to upskill one’s employees on AI comes as many finance chiefs are still weighing the pros and cons of investing in and implementing the technology, however.

“For us, it’s making sure that we're positioning our offers and our solutions, really, around the measurements that the CFO holds very dear in terms of what they need to report out to their board, their investors, their other constituents,” Ryan said of presenting new technology solutions to finance chiefs.

Today’s CFOs are also still confronting how AI’s implementation could impact the future of the finance function, as well as their own roles. Over half of finance chiefs expect to see their finance teams shrink by 2026 as a result of AI adoption, CFO Dive previously reported, citing data from Datarails. While others are not expecting to narrow their headcount, they are anticipating that automation will change the way financial processes are conducted.

AI will “continue to be more and more of a part of just how you do your work every day,” Ryan said. However, she also sees the technology’s future use cases becoming more specialized, she said.