Not using AI will derail your boardroom

Not using AI will derail your boardroom. Fail to seize its potential now, and you’re asking for trouble in the long term. 

There are two undeniable truths about artificial intelligence in business: the first is that it will redefine how we work, and the second is that it’s here to stay. 

This should serve as both an opportunity and a warning for directors. Managed correctly, there is a vast potential at their fingertips, able to assist them in this new, stricter, higher-stakes landscape of modern governance. But the fact remains that so many boards worldwide just haven’t given it enough thought yet. 

Headlines may swirl with dramatic warnings about AI replacing jobs or outsmarting regulators, but there’s a quieter, more practical risk facing corporate boards: doing nothing.

Board agendas are packed with essential issues from inflation to tariffs to geopolitics to ESG and new compliance headaches. Many directors see AI as an aside to all that – something they’ll get to “when they have time”. They don’t realise that AI could well be the missing link to address all the other challenges. 

Ultimately, boards that ignore AI could easily land in a future scenario where their governance ability simply won’t keep up. It’s a serious and fundamental risk. 

First off, we should clarify that we’re not talking about boards approving AI strategies for the entire company. Although crucial too, that’s a separate issue. 

What we’re talking about is boards making use of AI within their own ranks, seizing its potential as a revolutionary tool to meet modern boardroom standards. 

We know that there is a long way to go in this department. A Deloitte worldwide survey in late 2024 revealed that 45% of boards do not include AI on their agendas. A further 16% only discussed it once per year. Only 14% brought it up at every meeting. These are shocking statistics; they demonstrate that a key milestone in corporate governance is essentially being ignored by over half of the world’s directors. It may not yield short-term consequences, but it will definitely mean long-term derailment.

People often get worried that AI will eventually replace humans in key roles. The smart response is usually, “AI won’t take your job, but someone can use it might.”

This works along similar lines for governance. Boards that can use AI will likely excel at modern governance over boards that can’t. Companies could thrive or fail on this issue. 

Ask yourself which of those two groups you fit into as a director. Are you against it? Do you not see its value? Have you only used AI to write emails or pluck information online to beef up a report? If any of these sound like you, this is your wake-up call. AI offers colossal potential, and it’s your responsibility as a corporate leader to embrace it.

AI’s actual value isn’t just in novelty—it’s in its ability to solve some of the boardroom’s most persistent problems. Here are real examples of how dedicated AI models can elevate your boardroom capabilities:

• Executive performance metrics

Rather than relying solely on traditional KPIs and anecdotal reports, AI tools can synthesise real-time operational data to a much more powerful degree, giving you a fuller picture of key personnel performance. 

• Company performance

As above, AI models can train themselves to analyse various business performance metrics at once. The rapid processing of data, combined with the different comparisons, can help directors uncover trends they mightn’t have noticed, spotting opportunities or risks earlier, and encouraging key decisions when they will have more impact. 

• Staying informed

One of directors’ most urgent challenges is the sheer volume of data that they need to consume before making a decision. More information is available, but the tools to process it haven’t evolved to match… until now. AI is a massive game-changer in keeping directors informed. It can help you process and understand different complex issues and the data behind them. It can also offer real-time help in understanding such issues, giving you the chance to ask questions on things you’re not clear about and a clearer picture ahead of board meetings. 

Reading the above points, you may have noticed that we mention the potentials as ‘aiding’ in understanding or decision-making. 

You’ve probably heard it before, but that must always be AI’s role in governance. It can change your life, but only to a point. The buck still stops with the boards themselves, who remain responsible for understanding key information and making decisions based on it. 

Stakeholders will be unimpressed if you refuse to embrace AI, but they’ll be equally unimpressed if you use it wrong. 

So, learn how to talk to AI. Learn how different models work and what they measure. Fact-check everything. Ask for sources. Ask questions about anything that is not clear. These actions are the difference between blind dependence and innovative AI use. One creates risk; the other creates opportunity beyond modern governance standards.

AI governance can sometimes mean establishing rules for use and sticking to them. But it also means embracing the concept as a whole, integrating it into your boardroom activity. 

If you do this right, automating what can be automated while continuing to accept overall responsibility, you may find the long-awaited answer to boardroom compliance headaches and endless streams of data. Suddenly, the fog will clear.