Tracy Daniels, CDO at Truist, speaks with Ed Scott, CEO, ElectrifAI, in a video interview about her role as a CDO, the organizational state of data, data quality, responsible data management, and leveraging technology for organizational transformation.

Daniels has a background in fraud analytics as well as operations, infrastructure, and application development. She begins by stating that as the Chief Data Officer (CDO) of Truist, she has three main responsibilities. They are:

1. Governance of the technology for setting up regulations around data interaction

2. Delivery of technology, including data lakes, unstructured data, and client systems

3. Ensuring that there is a data culture through communities of practice, data literacy, and conversations related to topics such as generative AI and governance

Next, Daniels describes the state of organizational data in two ways – offense and defense. On the defensive side, the organization continuously addresses data quality as the volume and accuracy of data continue to multiply. Privacy considerations also play an increasingly important role in ensuring trust from customers and other institutions, she adds.

On the offensive side, there are lots of different types of data stores, from data lakes and lake houses to fabrics and mesh. She shares that the introduction of generative AI provides new opportunities to use data in an organization with more precision.

Moving forward, Daniels discusses data quality and mentions having conversations with consulting firms and her peers in the organization. She brings up the idea that ‘what gets measured gets managed,’ noting that it depends on the position in the life cycle and the kind of industry.

Delving deeper into data quality, she emphasizes that the goal at Truist is to ensure that the responsibility for data quality does not lie with only one person; rather, it is an organizational responsibility. To ensure it can meet this responsibility to the best of its ability, Truist empowers people with technology, training, and other necessary tools.

As people are responsible for transforming data, they are also responsible for data quality and should implement the appropriate controls, says Daniels. On a similar note, she is enthusiastic about the technological advances that could help manage, monitor, and report on data.

In addition, Daniels mentions that with the rapid increase in data, humans alone cannot do it, and therefore, organizations will require weaving those technologies together, end-to-end. Furthermore, she explains that when it comes to handling organizational data responsibly, Truist focuses on setting expectations for control and figuring out ways to manage and monitor that. Although, in a regulated business, the evidentiary proof of the actions taken is assessed through controls, dashboards, or inventory.

Additionally, Daniels reflects on the work done through mergers by leveraging innovation and expanding tools and frameworks to manage the work. She reckons its necessity as the organization was moving massive amounts of data and focusing on data accountability.

Thereafter, she asserts that using technology-enabled Truist to map the data and its flow. The tools also boosted confidence in moving and managing the data. Daniels concludes by stating that the organization works every day to be better at doing that across various pipelines.

CDO Magazine appreciates Tracy Daniels for sharing invaluable data insights with our global community.