Building the “Iron Man Suit” for Finance: Siqi Chen on Rethinking Decisions with AI

Siqi Chen is the founder and CEO of Runway, a next-gen FP&A -- financial planning and analysis platform.After experiencing firsthand how broken decision-making was — especially during COVID revenue shocks — Siqi set out to build a tool that empowers operators to make sharper, faster calls. Instead of endless spreadsheets and fragile assumptions, Runway gives teams AI-powered decision support that feels less like Excel and more like an Iron Man suit for operators.—Brought to you by Autoskills (https://autoskills.ai) – Helping teams go from AI-curious to AI-ready with tailored workshops and hands-on adoption.—00:00 Introduction — Siqi's background and how Runway began05:03 Ambient AI in practice — embedding intelligence subtly across workflows09:36 Scaling AI judgment: how Runway spreads AI "taste" through hiring, culture, and team norms13:15 From hackathons → hack sprints: why rapid iteration is key, and how to turn prototypes into production17:10 Avoiding AI sprawl — letting teams experiment without getting lost in tools19:24 Practical wins: how Runway transformed lead scoring, customer success, recruiting, and internal workflows with AI25:40 How Siqi keeps headcount less than 100 using AI33:15 How to empower non-technical teams to supercharge their workflows with AI43:22 Tools Runway uses internally47:40 Lessons learned from AI adoption sprints — what sticks vs. what fizzles51:05 The future of AI in decision-making — where FP&A is headed55:18 Lightning round + final thoughts—Where to Find Siqi:Twitter/X: https://x.com/bladerLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/siqic/Runway: runway.comWhere to find Haroon Choudery:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/haroonchoudery/X: https://x.com/haroonchoudery

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