Newell Brands gives internal audit a seat at the AI table, says Keri Tracy

Newell Brands is a consumer goods company, and its chief audit executive, Keri Tracy, is describing an arrangement in which auditors combine governance responsibilities with process optimization. Her claim that audit has a seat at the table for any major AI implementation, and that this is probably unique to her company, is the notable part: she says that at other companies she has worked at, getting audit into that position was very challenging. That contrast is the context for the rest of her comments.

The substance behind the seat at the table is risk-tiered deployment. Newell adjusts how fast it moves based on the risk involved, so customer order-status agents can advance faster than fixed-asset-accounting agents, which require closer attention to financial controls. Alongside that, Tracy describes internal audit as a bridge between business teams and technology specialists, and she insists that employees doing the work should help shape changes, with room to question proposed approaches. Her stated method — 'lean before AI,' applying lean and Six Sigma techniques to a process before adding AI on top — is meant to keep that process discipline in place.

The stakes here hinge on whether audit's early involvement actually shapes how fast AI moves through the business, or simply documents it afterward. Tracy's warning that a lot of transformations fail because they don't bring the people along suggests she sees the human side as the deciding factor. For audit and finance-controls teams at other companies, the question is whether they can obtain the same early role Tracy describes — she suggests that has been difficult elsewhere.