What’s In A Name: Chief AI Officer

People think this is a technical role. What I’ve learned is that for this to be successful, whoever is leading it needs to have the right balance between strategy and execution, business and technology.

Preetha Sekharan, chief AI officer at Hudson Valley Credit Union ($8.1B, Poughkeepsie, NY) is poised to have a very big influence very fast.

Not bad for someone who’s only been in the industry for a couple of months.

Sekharan’s background is in software engineering, with previous experience in consulting and product management. Hudson Valley is her first credit union post.

Only a few credit unions nationwide have a C-level role dedicated to AI strategy and adoption. At Hudson Valley, Sekharan is helping the New York‑based cooperative rethink how it approaches the technology and what it chooses to prioritize.

What is your elevator pitch when someone asks what you do?

Preetha Sekharan: I lead how AI is applied in making changes to our member experience, growth, efficiency, and risk management. Innovating at the right pace — keeping the regulations and responsible practices in mind.

Why is this title important?

PS: It signifies we’re serious about AI. It’s less about the title and more about the message that it sends internally and externally. The fact there is a role also means there’s a lot more accountability around AI. It’s no longer something we just play around with, it’s something we expect real business value out of.

I also think as we start taking on more and more AI efforts across the organization, there’s a need to have executive ownership —  someone not just looking at the value piece of it but making sure we’re considering the risks and doing it in a responsible manner.

What makes your role interesting?

PS: If I track just my own evolution and my own journey, there are a few things that are always interesting: Am I learning? Am I driving business impact? This role has both in spades.

It’s also a role that sits between strategy and execution, business and technology. There are a lot of intersections, and it requires all the skills and experiences I’ve built over the years to come to the fore to deliver the business goals and objectives.

What part of your role energizes you? Conversely, what part challenges you the most?

PS: What’s energizing is, “What’s the new problem?” I mean, it’s painful when you’re going through it because there’s not a lot of references you can go to. I had to unlearn a lot of things when I pivoted to AI. I had to go in with a beginner’s mindset.

You have to apply first principles thinking to see “How do I solve this problem?” because you might not have a lot of references of this working 20 times before in 500 other organizations. That, to me, is very energizing.

A lot of things are challenging. The fact that every day I’m learning new things and this technology is not stable and mature yet. People are discovering new capabilities every day. I’ve been in technology a while now and it has never been this overwhelming. There are a lot of things that come at me every day to make it challenging. Driving real business impact isn’t going to be easy. A lot of it is about people and their behaviors and how they trust, not just technology.

What’s the biggest misconception about your role?

PS:  People think this is a technical role. What I’ve learned is that for this to be successful, whoever is leading it needs to have the right balance between strategy and execution, business and technology. It’s not purely a technical role. When you think about the tenets that will drive successful transformation — people, change management, cultural change, all of them — these points become a critical aspect of AI and driving a successful AI transformation program in any organization.

Many times, people think they can successfully put in somebody who has a PhD in data science or that a lot of deeply technical roles can easily move into this role. It is difficult because of all the aspects that need to be considered for this to be successful. So that’s definitely a myth.

Ther’s also a myth around governance in general. Even at this credit union, we’re trying to stand up governance and AI risk management before we go full steam into use cases. If you’ve done it right, governance does not slow innovation, it should help accelerate innovation. The moment people hear “governance” or “AI governance,” the first thought that comes into their mind is, “Oh, this is going to slow me down.” But if done well, it should make life a lot easier knowing robust brakes are in place.

What is the No. 1 skill you need to do your job?

PS:  Instincts and judgment — being very intentional about what you say no to and what you say yes to.

There’s a lot of hype and there are zillions of startups and companies that did not exist two or three years back that are now available in the market, so the ability to quickly discern what is hype versus what is ripe for use cases is crucial. It’s a judgement skill.

AI also is about trust, influencing stakeholders and bringing an organization along. Your ability to do that is critical for this role.

Is that a skill where you’re pretty strong?

PS:  I’m a work in progress.

What skill do you wish you had or had more of for your job? 

PS:   Influence at scale and trust. Trust is not built in a day. When you’re new to an organization, that takes effort — being intentional and understanding that when you bring people along it may be slow at first, but eventually it’ll get faster.

How does your role contribute to the success of the credit union in ways people might not expect?

PS: AI tends to put the spotlight on weak areas in your organization. Maybe your data is not in good shape, you don’t have standard processes, or there’s a lack of clarity around how decisions are made. You have to get it right and make it right before you can scale AI.

How do you define success in your role?

PS: The first definition of success is achieving the business value. That’s the No. 1 priority.

We’re still defining what the strategy is and the North Star vision for AI in the credit union. As we define that and clearly lay out the metrics and goals we have around various business aspects, whether it’s member experience or employee experience, achieving that goal in the short term and keeping sight of the longer-term impact is the priority.

We’re also building the capability of AI within the organization. That’s priority No. 2. I’m spending a good bit of time standing up AI governance and building that muscle around risk, AI risk, and risk management. It’s about making sure we balance governance, not overengineer it, with innovation. That’s goal No. 3.

At the end of the day, this is a lot more about people than it is about technology, and we have to make sure our employees also feel that way.

If your role didn’t exist, what would your credit union be missing?

PS: The credit union was doing AI projects before I came, so there have been pockets of places where we’ve executed on AI. The biggest value I bring is in direction and coherence. That’s something I expect my role to bring forward. I almost see my role as a force multiplier. If 1+1 would have been two without me, 1 + 1 should be 11 with me.

What makes a credit union need this role?

PS: It depends on what you want to do with AI in your organization. If you think this is going to be a mainstream capability, you’re better off having a role that is focused on driving that.

A lot of organizations either have the scale to have this kind of capability and drive a lot of value for their business, or they’re on the cusp of a growth spurt where bringing in these capabilities could unlock that capacity for growth. If you believe AI will play a role in that growth, there can be a lot of fragmentation in terms of how to do it. Without this role, there might be small use cases, but the organization is not really thinking about AI in a way that is compounding.

What else do you want people to know about your role?

PS: AI is evolving and trust is an important part of the equation for a successful AI transformation. I expect this role to build both; the more you build adoption of AI, you also build that trust, which compounds over the years.

What (other) roles do you see driving credit unions forward in a modern financial services environment?

PS: I’ve touched a bit on the skills you need for AI to be successful. A product mindset is important because we almost think of these as living beings — they have a lifespan and you need to make sure you’re looking at them during that entire lifespan. So having people that have more of an AI product mindset will be an important role. Also, change management so people are focused on looking at the operations, processes, and the value stream and thinking about ways to reimagine this with AI embedded into the value stream. That and making sure people are equipped and trained to support that.

And then not directly in my organization, but I definitely see looking at AI risk and AI compliance like a muscle that any organizations that are serious about AI will need to have.

This interview has been edited and condensed.