Why finance teams need 'ambient intelligence' [Q&A]

The world is changing faster than ever, putting pressure on CFOs to create more value and be more strategic and collaborative.

Finance leaders are not only expected to understand the entire business, but they are also bogged down by the administrative work of backward-looking reporting and controls.

We spoke to Siqi Chen, founder of Runway, about a new 'ambient intelligence' platform that can help finance teams address the challenges they face.

BN: What are the major challenges that finance teams face today?

SC: Real strategic impact requires a clear and intuitive understanding of how all business functions -- sales, marketing, product, and engineering -- work together. Clear context fosters alignment, enables true collaboration, and accelerates execution..

Finance and business have traditionally been difficult to understand. That's why we created Runway to begin with: to make business accessible and understandable to everyone. We provide a comprehensive view of how all business functions fit together, offering teams a clear, shared understanding of the business. This alignment on strategic decisions helps create more impact and drive the organization forward.

BN: What is 'ambient intelligence' and how can it help with this problem?

SC: Ambient intelligence is a completely new expression of how AI can be used in products.

Most products treat AI as a separate creature right now -- it's either an agent working on its own, or a chat interface you have to talk to. Those are the default experiences, but there's another way to do it: by making the AI invisible.

If you look at how people actually use AI at work, GitHub Copilot is probably the most widely used tool. It isn't a separate chatbot or agent. It's more subtle, and so deeply embedded in GitHub's platform that it just makes what you’re doing faster and more efficient. With the current capabilities of AI models, that kind of seamless integration is a much better expression of AI.

Apple did the same thing with its latest iOS announcement at WWDC. They didn't add separate agents or chatbots. They just built AI into their workflows, so it can solve math equations as you type them or summarize text in real-time.

That's how AI should be expressed: as a tool for thought, working quietly in the background. At Runway, we call it Ambient Intelligence.

We agree with Joel Spolsky, who worked on Microsoft Excel, and once said, "Google uses Bayesian filtering the way Microsoft uses the IF statement." That's how deeply ingrained technology should be in a workflow.

It's the same with AI. Four years ago, we thought about calling ourselves 'CFO.ai.' We were advised against it because calling our product 'AI-powered' would soon sound as dated as labeling it 'powered by AJAX' or 'powered by AWS.' All technology eventually becomes outdated, so the focus should be on enhancing user experience instead.

BN: How does Runway use ambient intelligence specifically?

SC: In Runway, AI is deeply embedded in workflows and doesn't have to be prompted. It automatically explains what your model does or why your actuals are different from your forecast. That's what we mean by ambient intelligence -- an expression of AI that's a native part of your workflow, so it enhances everything you do and makes you go faster.

Ambient intelligence in tools like Runway makes finance easier to understand, allowing everyone in the organization to move forward with clarity and speed

Runway makes AI unobtrusive for the end user. Unlike other platforms, we avoid turning AI into a separate creature -- like an agent or a chatbot -- that you have to interact with.

Ambient intelligence is invisible; it's part of your everyday experience with Runway. It works quietly in the background, without interrupting. It's built into the platform, so it can anticipate intent and help you without being prompted. In the same way the GitHub Copilot autocompletes your code, or Apple Intelligence solves formulas as you write them, Runway's ambient intelligence makes your work clearer, faster, and more efficient.

What that means is you don't have to trace a driver through your entire model to understand how it connects with everything else-- we just tell you that, in plain English. You don't have to check if your actuals match your forecast -- we highlight deviations and help you understand what happened. All of that happens automatically -- ambient intelligence doesn’t make any changes to your model or scenarios, and doesn't have to be told which context or insight is most relevant to you at the moment. It just does the job.

Don't just take our word for it; we have dozens of customers that swear by Runway, including Superhuman, AngelList, 818 Tequila, and ConvertKit.

Superhuman in particular is a prime example of a company driving complete alignment through their organization with Runway. This was a quote from one of our customers Andrew Maher, head of finance at Superhuman. Read the full story here:

With Runway, we saw our efficiency skyrocket with a 50X to 100X improvement, turning hours-long tasks into seconds. Complex financial models were distilled into clear, actionable insights, making it easier to respond quickly to key executives. Runway was like adding a touch of magic to our financial strategy, turning data into actionable intelligence -- imagine having a co-pilot in finance that brings critical insights alongside number crunching.

BN: How do you see AI and ambient intelligence evolving in the finance industry in years to come?

SC: As AI capabilities evolve, I think we'll see a major shift in how work fundamentally gets done. While I don't think models are quite there yet, it'll happen very quickly. When it does, we’ll see a significant increase in the amount of leverage people have -- one person will do the work of ten, a hundred, or even a thousand people.

Enterprises will leverage AI to get more output with the same headcount, and planning will become exponentially more complex. But people will still need to make strategic decisions and understand how the business works -- only much faster, and way more efficiently than ever before.

We're going to need radically better tools for thought just to keep up. Ambient Intelligence can enable that by enhancing human capability effortlessly, without getting in the way.

BN: What do you see as the bigger implications of AI in business planning and decision-making?

SC: Let's set aside AGI, ASI, and the idea of technological singularity for a moment -- because in that world, where AI does everything and we're all lounging by a pool, it's a completely different story.

Before we reach that point, though, I think we'll see an exponential boost in human capability -- where one person can do the work of hundreds. Human output will reach unprecedented levels, making businesses and systems much more complex. We'll need AI to help us understand what’s happening and to make smarter decisions.

It'll all go hand-in-hand -- AI will drive increased leverage, which in turn will add to the complexity of systems. To manage increased complexity, we'll need even more advanced tools to further enhance human capability.

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