4 tips for building a strong finance AI bench: Gartner

Source Domain: www.cfodive.com

Finance departments with successful artificial intelligence results are more likely than their peers to assign people to roles that directly support the technology’s scaling and execution, according to a presentation at Gartner’s 2026 Finance Symposium/Xpo.

“These organizations have realized that we need to have people specifically owning AI initiatives,” Marco Steecker, a senior director in Gartner’s finance research practice, said during a May 29 session focused on strategies for ensuring AI success in finance.

According to research presented during the session, finance organizations report that their AI initiatives succeed only about 50% of the time. To better understand why some organizations outperform others, Gartner segmented respondents into two groups: those with AI success rates below 60% and those above that threshold.

The analysis found that outcomes were less about spending levels or access to tools and more about how organizations structured AI execution.

Below are four tips from the session on building successful AI teams in finance:

1. Assign a dedicated AI leader

High-performing finance organizations tend to establish a dedicated AI leader to accelerate AI-driven innovation and ensure alignment with the broader enterprise AI vision, Steecker said.

The role is responsible for defining how AI is delivered within the function, including the types of teams required and the processes used to develop and deploy tools. It also involves managing the organization’s AI portfolio, allocating resources, and overseeing investments in both near-term AI initiatives and longer-term foundational capabilities.

Another key responsibility is driving AI adoption across the finance function. This includes overseeing AI literacy initiatives and supporting change management to ensure broader uptake of AI tools.

In terms of qualifications, organizations typically look for individuals with 10 or more…

Source