Newell Brands puts internal audit at the heart of AI adoption
SiliconANGLE Victoria Gayton
Newell Brands is putting internal audit in the room for AI rollouts. The company is using auditors to slow down risky automation and keep controls intact.
Based on reporting by SiliconANGLE, Victoria Gayton — read the original for the full story.
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Newell Brands is treating internal audit as more than a cleanup crew. At the company, auditors are part of the AI conversation from the start, helping decide how quickly different jobs should be automated and where the guardrails need to be. Keri Tracy, Newell’s vice president and chief audit executive, said audit gets a seat at the table for major AI work — and that’s not something she’s seen everywhere else.
That matters because not every process carries the same level of risk. Tracy pointed to customer order-status agents as the kind of task that can move faster, while fixed-asset-accounting agents need far more attention because financial controls are on the line. The point is not to chase speed for its own sake. It’s to match the pace of adoption to the work itself.
Tracy’s rule of thumb is blunt: “lean before AI.” Newell applies lean and Six Sigma methods to processes before adding AI on top. That means the company is trying to tighten the workflow first, then automate it, instead of throwing software at a messy operation and hoping for the best. A lot of companies do the second part. Fewer do the first.
She also tied audit to change management, not just compliance. The people doing the work need to help shape the changes, and they need room to push back on a plan that looks good on paper but won’t survive contact with reality. Tracy said many transformations fail because they don’t bring people along. That’s a familiar corporate failure mode, and AI is only making it more expensive.
My take — AI-written commentary, not fact-checked reporting
This is the rare sensible AI story: audit first, hype second. Most companies are racing to automate anything that sits still long enough, then acting surprised when controls turn into a group project. Newell’s approach sounds boring, which is exactly why it may work.
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