My guiding principle, “if you question the ethics, do NOT proceed.” When decisions are connected to facts and gut feel, they are less likely to serve our pre-determined desires. We avoid the familiar phenomenon of backing into decisions. In the early days of Agent & Gen AI, the temptation is strong. Boards and organizations often have a deep sense of FOMO and leap in without integrating AI into the existing governance framework. AI presents the opportunity for boards to integrate their leadership framework, resisting the temptation to defer AI governance to subject matter experts.
My evolving AI governance reflections & thought starters:
- AI board governance includes involvement in shaping the regulatory landscape-“if you aren’t at the table, you are on the menu”
- Start with the end in mind- the WHY: vision, mission & strategy
- Principles guide policy
- Human capital displacement is an accelerating socio-economic threat
- AI is never lost for an answer; it will hallucinate & make errors; it lacks human discernment, wisdom, experience, and insight
- Stakeholder considerations include shareholder return
- Boards/organizations have a leadership responsibility to resist human capital displacement solely for profit maximization
- AI has great power, significance & complexity
- Human capital replacement is a suboptimal goal
- AI use cases will uncover leapfrog potential value
- AI can’t overcome a stagnant business model, “can’t cost-cut your way to growth”
- AI initiatives often focus on becoming cheaper, faster caterpillars vs butterflies
- Historical bias is a feature of AI
- Safety, privacy, security & transparency are North Stars
- High tech complemented by a high-touch experience is the magic
- Human capital remains a growth & value creation engine
Boards must be resolute in shifting their role to greater foresight with emphasis on the intolerable labor of thought. Deep dialogue will reveal that the questions and considerations are many while the answers are few, expressed in an integrated governance framework of principles & policy.