The Sapien Journal
Insights from the frontier of building AI systems that enable mid-markets to the Fortune 500 to run better. Customer stories, research notes, industry expertise, product learnings, and the occasional hot take to keep it interesting.
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Why CFOs Don't Trust AI (And Why They Should): Verifiability
Finance teams reasonably worry about AI being wrong. Traditional software earns trust through determinism but AI works differently. It can't guarantee identical results every time, but it has complete verifiability. For financial operations, the ability to see every data source, every calculation, and every assumption behind a number matters more than deterministic accuracy. AI that shows its work builds trust that deterministic systems can't match at scale.
Why CFOs Don't Trust AI (And Why They Should): Communication
Finance teams don’t struggle with AI because their data isn’t “AI-ready.” They struggle because communication with AI is unfamiliar and imprecise. When AI interprets questions differently than intended, trust breaks down. Sapien addresses this by making assumptions explicit, allowing users to correct misunderstandings in plain language, and retaining company-specific context over time.
Why CFOs Don't Trust AI (And Why They Should): Expectations
Most CFOs aren’t avoiding AI because it lacks capability. What stops adoption is expectations. Finance teams are judging AI using frameworks built for traditional enterprise software. But AI is not meant to quietly automate. Its real value is collapsing weeks of analysis into hours, making questions that used to be too expensive in time suddenly worth asking.
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Why CFOs Don't Trust AI (And Why They Should): Verifiability
Finance teams reasonably worry about AI being wrong. Traditional software earns trust through determinism but AI works differently. It can't guarantee identical results every time, but it has complete verifiability. For financial operations, the ability to see every data source, every calculation, and every assumption behind a number matters more than deterministic accuracy. AI that shows its work builds trust that deterministic systems can't match at scale.
Why CFOs Don't Trust AI (And Why They Should): Communication
Finance teams don’t struggle with AI because their data isn’t “AI-ready.” They struggle because communication with AI is unfamiliar and imprecise. When AI interprets questions differently than intended, trust breaks down. Sapien addresses this by making assumptions explicit, allowing users to correct misunderstandings in plain language, and retaining company-specific context over time.
Why CFOs Don't Trust AI (And Why They Should): Expectations
Most CFOs aren’t avoiding AI because it lacks capability. What stops adoption is expectations. Finance teams are judging AI using frameworks built for traditional enterprise software. But AI is not meant to quietly automate. Its real value is collapsing weeks of analysis into hours, making questions that used to be too expensive in time suddenly worth asking.
