“I'm pro-AI coming into the workspace. And I think, you know, unfortunately, in government, we're a lot slower to adapt to those kinds of changes.”
Six months ago, Kevin Bueso, CFO of Chicago's Regional Transportation Authority (RTA), took over his current position after working as CFO of McHenry County, Illinois. In his new role, Bueso’s responsibilities have grown. As a leader who prides himself on work-life balance, he actively participates in non-profits and has a solid ability to collaborate and exchange ideas. Bueso has been having many conversations around talent and technology with his peers.
With AI’s emergence into the corporate world and lingering industry-wide talent issues, Bueso is open to new technologies in the workplace. Although he recognizes the government won’t be turning to ChatGPT to replace anyone anytime soon, he believes generative AI and other technologies may have a significant role in improving efficiency and addressing some of the challenges faced by finance leaders in government.
Focusing On Practical Automation
Regarding automation, Bueso and his team are focused more on practical automation tools than the ones still in development. “If there is any way robotic process automation (RPA) can be implemented, I am having those conversations,” said Bueso. “I'm having employees attend meetings and sessions related to AI to see what other organizations are doing.”
Right now, when it comes to new technology, Bueso is focused on automating the forecast. Not only does he recognize the power of sound and accurate forecasting, but Bueso understands the technology in this area is something that is not only readily available but practical for a large public organization to implement at scale.
“We know forecasting is such a tremendous tool for making decisions in the business environment,” he said. “That being said, the person doing the forecast has a lot of influence on the outcome of that forecast.”
Bueso believes AI’s assistance in forecasting can remove the narrative that can be weaved into the data and can allow the numbers to tell their own story, rather than the forecaster using the data to tell the story they believe is taking place. Although this technology can pick up most of the work from a person specializing in forecasting, Bueso said their labor is still required.
When Buseo has conversations with his employees about technology taking work from them, he explains that technology will replace repetitive tasks, but the organization will still rely on the employee for critical thinking. He also explains that employees make themselves more valuable and marketable if they embrace the technology.
ChatGPT at Work
Despite the limits of ChatGPT's impact on the public sector on a large scale, Bueso has used ChatGPT as a virtual assistant for himself. From answering questions to developing text for board meetings, Bueso believes that the technology makes his workflow more efficient and frees his time up to do other things.
I’ve had six board meetings so far, and nobody has noticed that a lot of the narrative I’ve used in my presentations has come from AI. — Kevin Bueso, Chicago RTA
“I have used ChatGPT already at the RTA for my board reports,” said Bueso. “I just dump a lot of information into it and then tell it I need a report to present the information, and it gives me a narrative. There’s a lot of times it's worked very well for that."
As a tool, Bueso believes that these kinds of technologies can act as a great supplement to work or assist with crunch time. By embracing the technology, finding a use for it in his current role, and doing so in a way that allows him to practice what he preaches, Bueso’s interest in technology and how it can impact the public sector is already paying dividends.
“I’ve had six board meetings so far, and nobody has noticed that a lot of the narrative I’ve used in my presentations has come from AI,” he said.
Overcoming Labor Shortages
As an overseer of a public transit system and all its supporting entities, Bueso’s conversations around labor and its future are as frequent as they are significant. Not only is he dealing with the accounting shortage like every other CFO, but he is also dealing with the effects of a wider labor shortage in positions like bus driver, train operator, and maintenance worker. The RTA’s talent issues and turnover are something Bueso is focused on improving.
In our controller division, we only have one employee that has been with the RTA for more than a year, so that gives you an idea of how much turnover there is. — Bueso
His new strategy is pretty simple: pay people more. “Pre-pandemic, we were advertising $15 per hour for bus drivers. Now we're talking base pay of $28.99 per hour, going all the way to $36 per hour depending on qualifications and everything else. Even with these changes, labor in areas like this are problems that we are seeing.”
Talent retainment is an issue for Bueso, too. “In our controller division, we only have one employee that has been with the RTA for more than a year, so that gives you an idea of how much turnover there is.”
“Within the last two months or so, more organization-wide, we had two or three department heads leave,” Bueso continued. “Our attorney, general counsel, director of governmental affairs, and director of human resources went to positions that are paying more or offering a more hybrid schedule, so we’ve had to adjust to that as well.”
“We’re going to be embarking on a compensation study to address some of these issues, at least trying to retain employees at this point. So the challenge is real.”
This is part two of a two-part series. You can read part one here.