Excerpted from a conversation between Marco Argenti, CIO at Goldman Sachs, and Sam Kim, COO at GIC:

The Shift of Technology to the Strategic Table

There has been a significant shift in perception of technology within financial institutions, from back-office function to central role in strategic decision-making. It is critical for tech teams to understand business context in extreme detail and then adopt a “work backwards” approach. Before you build, you must first define and understand customer needs and business problems, which fosters a much deeper collaboration between technology and business teams.

Building a Strong Technical Culture

Cultivating a robust technical culture is essential for retaining talent and enabling engineers to perform at their best. You should think about establishing core engineering tenets that guide decision-making and discussions, for example being data-driven and encouraging curiosity and experimentation while maintaining safety.

Navigating Cultural Change in Financial Services

Transitioning from a tech-centric environment like Amazon to a regulated financial institution posed unique opportunities for me. Our leadershiop recognized the necessity of top-tier technology skills to maintain market leadership. This shift in mindset facilitated my integration into the organization and helped prioritize long-term investments in modernizing infrastructure and reducing technical debt.

Overcoming Barriers to AI Adoption

The key barriers to AI adoption are data security, lack of internal expertise, and unproven ROI. In each of these, I would advise a cautious, risk-based approach to AI and robust data management practices. Nevertheless, it should be a requirement for companies to adapt their workforce to leverage AI effectively, focusing on upskilling employees to work alongside AI systems.

Balancing Centralization with Agility

Centralization is often viewed as a hindrance to agility, but well-implemented controls can enhance speed. Think of it like F1 and the relationship between controls and speed to high-performance systems, where robust controls enable safe exploration and innovation. By creating a centralized platform for AI capabilities, you can streamline application development while ensuring compliance and risk management.

The Future of AI and Workforce Dynamics

I see a future where AI agents play a significant role in augmenting human capabilities. I anticipate that as AI technologies evolve, the nature of work will change, requiring employees to develop new skills in describing, delegating, and supervising tasks. This shift could lead to a broader span of control for managers, allowing them to oversee larger teams supported by AI.