While artificial intelligence (AI) has been around for years, more recently these tools have evolved from basic automation tools to advanced systems capable of learning, adapting, and making decisions.
AI is becoming an integral part of how organisations operate, helping improve productivity, understand customer needs, and drive innovation. Board members must embrace AI to stay competitive in today’s data-driven world.
This article provides practical tips to help board directors integrate artificial intelligence solutions into their corporate governance and business operations.
What is Artificial Intelligence?
AI refers to computer systems capable of performing tasks that typically require human intelligence, such as learning, problem-solving, pattern recognition, and decision-making. By analysing vast amounts of data, AI drives smarter operations, improves customer experiences, and keeps businesses informed about industry trends.
In today’s fast-paced and ever-evolving market, adopting AI has become essential for staying ahead in the competition.
While generative AI is a subset of AI focused on content creation, regular AI encompasses a broader range of applications designed to process, analyse, and act on data without creating something entirely new.
Some of the key business use cases for AI include:
- Data-driven decision-making: AI assists with data-driven decision-making by analysing large volumes of data to decipher patterns, trends, and insights. This information helps businesses drive strategic growth based on data rather than assumptions and human intuition.
- Risk management and fraud detection: With AI’s ability to detect anomalies and suspicious patterns, organisations can quickly identify and mitigate risks or fraudulent activity.
- Predictive analytics and strategic planning: By leveraging machine learning algorithms and other artificial intelligence strategies to forecast trends and market changes, AI allows businesses to make proactive decisions.
- Automating routine reporting and compliance: Organisations save time, money, and resources by implementing AI into their routine reporting and compliance process. AI can streamline data collection, analysis, and documentation, ensuring accurate and timely reports.
- Board meeting efficiency and collaboration: OnBoard’s AI capabilities assist with automating agenda creation, summarising discussions, and providing real-time data insights. This allows board members to focus on their priorities and work together on resolving problems and implementing new policies.
Efficiently track and document board decisions with our Meeting Minutes Template
How Boards Can Adopt Artificial Intelligence
AI might seem intimidating at first due to its complexity, but there are practical, user-friendly tools designed to simplify adoption for boards.
The following tips can help your board adopt artificial intelligence:
Educate and Build AI Literacy
To foster AI literacy among your governing board members, start with introductory training on the basics of AI and how they can benefit your business strategy. Emphasise the practical applications of integrating AI into your operations, while also addressing potential challenges your organisation may encounter.
Additionally, it’s important to support continuous learning through interactive sessions, training opportunities, and online resources.
Assess Organisational Readiness
Adopting new methods begins with the leadership team and its ability to embrace innovation and change. When it comes to staff and other stakeholders, board members can assess their organisational readiness by evaluating the existing data infrastructure.
Develop an AI Strategy
To develop an AI strategy, board members must come up with a clear and well-defined objective. The objective should align AI initiatives with business goals, such as streamlining communication, improving efficiency, and enhancing the customer experience.
Next, board members should identify use cases that would benefit from the adoption of AI strategies, such as improving security through fraud detection. For instance, your organisation could use AI to analyse transaction patterns and flag unusual or fraudulent activity.
Create an AI Governance Framework
An AI governance framework is a set of guidelines designed to ensure AI systems are integrated into your organization in an ethical, transparent, and responsible way.
Board members can create this framework by establishing clear policies and instructions that address these issues, while also defining the roles and responsibilities of those overseeing AI practices.
Lastly, the framework should include a process for ongoing monitoring, risk management, and compliance, ensuring alignment with your organisation’s business strategy.
Pilot, Evaluate, and Scale AI Strategy
As with any organisational initiative or technology rollout, it’s essential to test AI initiatives on a small scale to assess their feasibility. During the evaluation phase, board members can measure the pilot’s success and gather feedback from all stakeholders involved. Inevitably, there will be areas requiring adjustment. Once the pilot proves successful, board members can then scale the AI solution, gradually expanding its reach to include more stakeholders until it is adopted across the entire organisation.
Leverage OnBoard AI to Improve Board Effectiveness
In the digital age, boards increasingly leverage board management software with integrated AI tools to enhance governance from all angles.
OnBoard’s meeting software includes advanced AI capabilities, offering real-time agenda creation, automatic transcription, and actionable insights to optimise board collaboration. Other key OnBoard features include Zoom integration, voting and assessment tools, and encrypted data security.
Ready to combine board management with the power of AI? Check out our Board Management Software Guide to learn more about empowering your governing board.
Ready to combine board management with the power of AI? Check out our Board Management Software Guide to learn more about empowering your governing board.
The comprehensive blueprint for selecting a results-driven board management vendor.
Ready to upgrade your board’s effectiveness with OnBoard’s board management platform? Schedule a demo or request a free trial.
About The Author
- Darren McCullagh is Marketing Operations Manager at OnBoard and an experienced B2B SaaS marketer with over eight years in international demand generation, marketing operations, and campaign execution. He specialises in developing and scaling multi-channel programmes across EMEA and APAC, bridging sales and marketing, and enhancing campaign performance. Darren lives in the North West of Ireland.
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