I subscribe to and recommend the McKinsey Technology newsletter, and recently they shared The AI reckoning: How boards can evolve.
It’s a good read.
First, they sound a warning bell:
More than 88 percent of organizations report using AI in at least one business function; however, board governance has not matched that pace. While interest in AI seems to have spiked after the introduction of ChatGPT, as of 2024, only 39 percent of Fortune 100 companies disclosed any form of board oversight of AI—whether through a committee, a director with AI expertise, or an ethics board.
Even more telling, a global survey of directors found that 66 percent report their boards have “limited to no knowledge or experience” with AI, and nearly one in three say AI does not even appear on their agendas.
We should be worried.
Surely, every organization’s board should be providing oversight to ensure AI is effectively and productively deployed.
But, the report says:
AI adoption has not yet led to significantly improved performance for most businesses, with companies reporting modest levels of savings and new revenue.
In our experience, however, many of the issues plaguing AI programs—such as a lack of strategic coherence and unclear value dynamics—are precisely the ones that boards are best positioned to address. In…
