Thoughts on Ignite Conference

Companies are at various stages of maturity in terms of their AI adoption. Helping corporate leaders to think strategically about AI is critical as companies seek to generate a return on investment from AI. Understanding the risks and opportunities that companies face is fundamentally important for strategic direction. As adoption matures, how these impacts will evolve, so leaders must invest time in fully understanding them.

Our panel shared insights on the latest thinking from the board level to the product level to help key stakeholders ensure that their AI deployments maximize value. We identified trends that stakeholders can use as guideposts as companies move deeper into AI transformation. 

I was delighted to be joined on the panel by Svetlana Kamyshanskaya, founder of Primum Law Group (a global AI-centric firm), and Ben Roome, the cofounder of Ethical Resolve, a consultancy that specializes in AI and machine learning.

Some of the key takeaways of our conversation included:

Ben shared that the key components of effective product governance are risk identification, measurement, and review. Whether you are a product team or a procurement professional, you must understand the specific risks associated with the system, implement measurement practices to assess negative impacts, and then continuously ensure that measurement thresholds are being met throughout the deployment process.

A recent survey by McKinsey, The State of AI Report 2024, shows that CEO and board oversight of AI governance is strongly linked to higher bottom-line impact from Gen AI use. Unfortunately, all too often, when you say corporate governance, people immediately think in terms of roadblocks and ways to slow down the adoption.

Boards and good governance in general should take a holistic look at risks, so while adoption has its own set of risks, equally so is the lack of willingness to try it and understand the implications for companies. LouAnn knows a few directors who’ve had to nudge their leadership team to dig into the implications of AI for their company. Because of their broader perspective, directors are sensitive to the fact that if they are not thinking about their company with a future AI state in mind, either their competition or an up-and-comer is, and they may be AI native.

Many companies use AI tools without considering the consequences. Svetlana shared examples of AI in code development, which raises intellectual property (IP) protection issues and increases the risk of IP infringement cases. Why does this happen? Engineers often lack education on these risks, and companies frequently have no internal policies in place.

While AI products can enhance business efficiency, they also introduce significant risks. Startup founders tend to focus on the benefits while overlooking these risks, but this short-term approach is unsustainable in the long run.

LouAnn reminded that boards and corporate governance in general, if done well, are multipliers for the benefits of AI. Boards often struggle because of a lack of expertise to understand both the risks and opportunities, and then tailoring that information to address the specific needs of the company. A recent Deloitte survey on governance of private companies had training and education of boards on AI as one of their top priorities after determining use cases for AI and reskilling and upskilling of talent.

 Further, the way boards run corporate governance is changing, too. AI is coming directly into the board room and changing how boards are seeing information and the frequency with which they are seeing it. 

Specifically, areas such as how boards function will change, how boards process information (reducing asymmetry in information as boards historically have relied on information supplied by management, AI will reduce that imbalance and increase the volume and quality of the information) AI will result in what LouAnn calls a head swivel combining the retrospective historical review (common today) with predictive and trend analysis allowing boards and management to be more proactive and less reactive. It’s changing how boards interact with management and management with boards,  and how board advisors can contribute.

Expectations from board directors will be exponentially higher as they’ll have access not only to more and better information but more tools. More information includes insights into the company which management previously acted as a gatekeeper for.

For management, AI will allow them to prepare for their board meetings like never before, testing their analysis and proposals and ratcheting up the quality of their decision-making.

LouAnn, Svetlana, and Ben are looking forward to continuing the conversation. Stay tuned!