Goldman Sachs chief information officer Marco Argenti recently stated that companies may be focusing on the wrong metrics by tracking how employees use artificial intelligence at work. While many firms encourage workers to adopt AI tools more frequently, Argenti believes that monitoring AI usage is an ineffective way to gauge productivity improvements. Instead, organizations should measure the speed at which a team can develop a future, he explained.
Why Measuring AI Usage Is Misguided
Argenti compared the practice to focusing on a single player in a team sport. “It would be like looking at only one player on the field,” he said in a Business Insider interview. “Fine, this player is doing more movements, but why am I not scoring more goals? Well, because they need to pass the ball.” He emphasized that a more effective metric is observing how quickly a productive team’s work backlog shrinks.
How AI Has Transformed Work at Goldman Sachs
During the interview, Argenti detailed how AI has changed employee workflows at Goldman Sachs. Instead of spending extensive time creating presentations to explain ideas, teams can now rapidly build working prototypes and refine them instantly based on feedback. “There’s zero time between idea and prototype. You kind of ‘3D print’ software,” he said.
The investment bank is adopting a unique approach to AI integration. Argenti revealed that Goldman Sachs measures how quickly its engineering teams can move from conceptualizing an idea to executing it. He also noted that employee attitudes toward AI have shifted significantly. “The dominant sentiment is really a sense of empowerment. People feel almost liberated. A few weeks or months ago, of course, there was a real bit of skepticism and fear, but I correlate that to people that were not really using it,” he stated.
Goldman Sachs’ AI Investments
Goldman Sachs has invested heavily in AI tools in recent years. In 2024, the bank launched its GS AI Platform, which utilizes large language models from companies such as OpenAI and Google, with added security layers to protect corporate data. The bank has also introduced internal AI systems similar to ChatGPT and a research tool called “Legend,” which allows employees to search company files using natural language.
These developments underscore a broader shift in how the financial giant approaches technology, moving from fear to empowerment and focusing on outcomes rather than usage metrics.
