Why Ally’s AI Actually Stuck
Wed Feb 04 2026
Enterprise AI isn’t failing because of models, tools, or budgets.
It’s failing because people don’t actually use it.
While most organizations stall after pilots, Ally Financial broke the pattern — reaching over 50% AI adoption with nearly 90% retention.
In this episode of the AI Proving Ground Podcast, Ally Chief Information, Data and Digital Officer Sathish Muthukrishnan joins former Bank of America CTO David Reilly to unpack why adoption is a leadership and culture problem, not a technology one.
Ally’s breakthrough came from an augmentation-first mindset — positioning AI as a way to help employees do better work, not replace them.
In this conversation, you’ll hear:
Why “stick rate” matters more than accessHow psychological safety accelerates adoptionTreating internal AI tools like real productsTurning AI pilots into infrastructureIf your AI investments aren’t translating into real usage, this episode shows how to fix it — without burning trust.
Support for this episode provided by: Illumio
More about this week's guests:
Sathish Muthukrishnan was named chief information, data and digital officer for Ally Financial Inc. in December 2019. In this role, Muthukrishnan is responsible for advancing Ally's technical and digital capabilities, including customer experience, data & analytics, cyber security and infrastructure, and accelerating the company's growth and evolution as a leader in the digital financial services sector. He reports to Ally's CEO.
Sathish's top pick: Accelerating AI Adoption: How a Bank Gained Early Insights
David Reilly is Chief Development Officer at WWT and previously served on Ally’s Board of Directors. He spent over a decade at Bank of America, most recently as CIO for Global Banking & Markets, after holding multiple senior technology leadership roles. Earlier in his career, David spent nearly three decades in technology and cybersecurity roles at major financial institutions including Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch, Credit Suisse, and HSBC. He also serves on the boards of Data Dynamics and NPower.
David's top pick: Addressing Technical Debt in Financial Services
The AI Proving Ground Podcast leverages the deep AI technical and business expertise from within World Wide Technology's one-of-a-kind AI Proving Ground, which provides unrivaled access to the world's leading AI technologies. This unique lab environment accelerates your ability to learn about, test, train and implement AI solutions.
Learn more about WWT's AI Proving Ground.
The AI Proving Ground is a composable lab environment that features the latest high-performance infrastructure and reference architectures from the world's leading AI companies, such as NVIDIA, Cisco, Dell, F5, AMD, Intel and others.
Developed within our Advanced Technology Center (ATC), this one-of-a-kind lab environment empowers IT teams to evaluate and test AI infrastructure, software and solutions for efficacy, scalability and flexibility — all under one roof. The AI Proving Ground provides visibility into data flows across the entire development pipeline, enabling more informed decision-making while safeguarding production environments.
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Enterprise AI isn’t failing because of models, tools, or budgets. It’s failing because people don’t actually use it. While most organizations stall after pilots, Ally Financial broke the pattern — reaching over 50% AI adoption with nearly 90% retention. In this episode of the AI Proving Ground Podcast, Ally Chief Information, Data and Digital Officer Sathish Muthukrishnan joins former Bank of America CTO David Reilly to unpack why adoption is a leadership and culture problem, not a technology one. Ally’s breakthrough came from an augmentation-first mindset — positioning AI as a way to help employees do better work, not replace them. In this conversation, you’ll hear: Why “stick rate” matters more than accessHow psychological safety accelerates adoptionTreating internal AI tools like real productsTurning AI pilots into infrastructureIf your AI investments aren’t translating into real usage, this episode shows how to fix it — without burning trust. Support for this episode provided by: Illumio More about this week's guests: Sathish Muthukrishnan was named chief information, data and digital officer for Ally Financial Inc. in December 2019. In this role, Muthukrishnan is responsible for advancing Ally's technical and digital capabilities, including customer experience, data & analytics, cyber security and infrastructure, and accelerating the company's growth and evolution as a leader in the digital financial services sector. He reports to Ally's CEO. Sathish's top pick: Accelerating AI Adoption: How a Bank Gained Early Insights David Reilly is Chief Development Officer at WWT and previously served on Ally’s Board of Directors. He spent over a decade at Bank of America, most recently as CIO for Global Banking & Markets, after holding multiple senior technology leadership roles. Earlier in his career, David spent nearly three decades in technology and cybersecurity roles at major financial institutions including Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch, Credit Suisse, and HSBC. He also serves on the boards of Data Dynamics and NPower. David's top pick: Addressing Technical Debt in Financial Services The AI Proving Ground Podcast leverages the deep AI technical and business expertise from within World Wide Technology's one-of-a-kind AI Proving Ground, which provides unrivaled access to the world's leading AI technologies. This unique lab environment accelerates your ability to learn about, test, train and implement AI solutions. Learn more about WWT's AI Proving Ground. The AI Proving Ground is a composable lab environment that features the latest high-performance infrastructure and reference architectures from the world's leading AI companies, such as NVIDIA, Cisco, Dell, F5, AMD, Intel and others. Developed within our Advanced Technology Center (ATC), this one-of-a-kind lab environment empowers IT teams to evaluate and test AI infrastructure, software and solutions for efficacy, scalability and flexibility — all under one roof. The AI Proving Ground provides visibility into data flows across the entire development pipeline, enabling more informed decision-making while safeguarding production environments.