Citi tech chief Tim Ryan explains why he won't track employees' every AI move
Tim Ryan, Citi's tech chief, brought Business Insider into the bank's AI strategy.He's focused on scaling AI use and not relying too heavily on metrics for cost or token usage.Ryan has prioritized reducing contractors over full-time employees, as the bank trims headcount.Around 45 minutes into Citi's second-quarter earnings call, when talking about AI efficiencies, the bank's chief financial officer name-dropped another executive: Tim Ryan.Citi is counting on Ryan, the head of technology, to catapult it past an era of outdated technology and regulatory scrutiny, in part by leveraging AI. Ryan oversees the bank's nearly $12 billion tech budget, and said his focus is on making sure Citi's more than 220,000 employees are actually using AI tools.To Ryan, that doesn't mean keeping track of every AI token workers spend the bank's money on, but rather striking the right balance between "metrics and pride.""What we realized very quickly is — don't measure everything, because you'll stifle it.
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Tim Ryan, Citi's tech chief, brought Business Insider into the bank's AI strategy.He's focused on scaling AI use and not relying too heavily on metrics for cost or token usage.Ryan has prioritized reducing contractors over full-time employees, as the bank trims headcount.Around 45 minutes into Citi's second-quarter earnings call, when talking about AI efficiencies, the bank's chief financial officer name-dropped another executive: Tim Ryan.Citi is counting on Ryan, the head of technology, to catapult it past an era of outdated technology and regulatory scrutiny, in part by leveraging AI. Ryan oversees the bank's nearly $12 billion tech budget, and said his focus is on making sure Citi's more than 220,000 employees are actually using AI tools.To Ryan, that doesn't mean keeping track of every AI token workers spend the bank's money on, but rather striking the right balance between "metrics and pride.""What we realized very quickly is — don't measure everything, because you'll stifle it. You have to measure the big things, but don't try to measure every last-mile use case, because, frankly, you'll uninspire people if they feel like they're being watched too much," he told Business Insider in May.Ryan said that philosophy reflects his belief that companies won't win the AI race on the technology choices they make, but how people use it."I don't think you'll hear anybody stand up and say I won because I chose this LLM or this LLM," Ryan said. "Where they will win or lose is how they bring tens and tens of thousands of people along."The firm has hundreds of AI use cases, and Fraser said nearly 90% of employees were using AI tools on the second-quarter earnings call.
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- Tim Ryan, Citi's tech chief, brought Business Insider into the bank's AI strategy.He's focused on scaling AI use and not relying too heavily on metrics for cost or token usage.Ryan has prioritized reducing contractors over full-time employees, as the bank trims headcount.Around 45 minutes into Citi's second-quarter earnings call, when talking about AI efficiencies, the bank's chief financial officer name-dropped another executive: Tim Ryan.Citi is counting on Ryan, the head of technology, to catapult it past an era of outdated technology and regulatory scrutiny, in part by leveraging AI. Ryan oversees the bank's nearly $12 billion tech budget, and said his focus is on making sure Citi's more than 220,000 employees are actually using AI tools.To Ryan, that doesn't mean keeping track of every AI token workers spend the bank's money on, but rather striking the right balance between "metrics and pride.""What we realized very quickly is — don't measure everything, because you'll stifle it.
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Citi tech chief Tim Ryan explains why he won't track employees' every AI move
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