Martijn Gribnau is Chief Customer Success Officer at Quant
As the world of finance continues to become more automated via digitization, AI, and agentics it may happen by accident that leaders themselves become less human in their approach to their work and team. But, in this move to efficiency and great return on spend you cannot lose sight of the need to be human, and its return.
Per a recent study from Deloitte, only 21% of people in the finance world trust AI, specifically agentic AI. Your team is served and reads the same doomsday AI headlines and clickbait pieces you do. The vast majority of online content is telling them that AI will replace them, that they will be sent to the unemployment line without an opportunity at redemption.
You know this isn’t true. But, you cannot simply tell your team. You have to show them through your implementation and subsequent actions managing this technology. Building trust is an organizational opportunity, and like agentic AI it will be an ongoing learning and evolution. To get the most out of AI you cannot break everything that is human at your company. You must keep people at the core of your operation.
Transparency and Explainability are the Foundations of Trust
All of the AI that you implement must be explainable to the team as an entirety. Once they understand it they will be less likely to fear it. The monster in the closet ceases to be frightening when you turn the light on. The systems in which you put capital must be able to show clearly where, when, how, and why decisions were made. It must be able to demonstrate what data was used and how it was leveraged.
This level of transparency is paramount for leadership and the team to know that when placed under stress, the AI will perform as predicted. Put in place a process that every decision AI is responsible for is followed by a log that lists every piece of data that was used so that the trail can always be traced back to the source.
You must then communicate this commitment back to the team. Again, show them the steps you are taking that keep your company human centric.
Foster First Adopters
The most trust in AI that will be built is peer to peer. Trust in any organization isn’t developed via weekly emails or mission statements, it is built on the floor in production. You need to foster first adopters and turn them into evangelists of agentic AI. As you read this you may already have in mind those on your team that always lean into innovation and thrive when adapting to new technology. Begin with them. Show them your methodology and results you are expecting. Once they buy in, buy in will organically grow across the organization.
Then, have those first adopters lead agentic AI advocacy teams. They will be the ones to showcase how the technology is augmenting work, not replacing workers. This allows the staff at large to become educated on the ways in which agentic will aid them in their growth and development. Be sure that on these teams every department possible is represented, and that multiple levels of the organization are present as well. This not only aids in adoption, but also allows you to solicit input and feedback on how well the technology is performing in every manner it is being used.
Continuous Dialogue and Repetition
Trust must first be earned, and then maintained through the duration of the existence of your organization. The most effective and time proven way to accomplish this is through a continuous, open, two-way dialogue between leadership and the end-users of any technology you deploy. You cannot simply request feedback or send a survey at 30, 60, and 90 days. You must have a conduit through which honest assessment of the operation can be channeled at any time.
Concurrently, you must conduct audits at regular intervals and share results with the team. They can then see that you are not taking your eyes off the ball, and that you are maintaining firm governance.
Agentic AI could very well play a defining role in the next decade of your organization. Built within the core of company culture must be a mindset to action, and your people are a huge part of this. People must be those that do, not wait. Your people will be the most pivotal part of success or failure. It can be easy to become enamoured with the results AI can drive, the additional ROI it will provide. But that is a short sided point of view. You mustn’t break all that is human in the pursuit of pure profit. Get your people on board working side by side with AI and you’ll experience the greatest returns.