How Principal Financial's new CEO brought AI religion to the C-suite, and then worked to upskill 20,000 employees

How Principal Financial's new CEO brought AI religion to the C-suite, and then worked to upskill 20,000 employees

When Deanna Strable, the chief executive officer of Principal Financial, mandated a four-hour, in-person artificial intelligence training session for her executive leadership team, the initial response wasn’t entirely enthusiastic.  “I had some resistance from my team,” recalls Strable, who says the training was held in July as part of a monthly meeting at the company’s corporate headquarters in Des Moines, Iowa. “Some of them said, ‘Why do we n…