AI in the boardroom: risk, reward, and innovation

Artificial intelligence represents a new frontier of commerce. As more businesses begin to adopt the tech to seize new opportunities for value creation and increased productivity, they face the risk of misinformation among an ever-expanding list of potential abuses. It’s a dichotomy that business leaders must reconcile.

Charlie Grubb (Senior Managing Director, Robert Half) hosted a lunchtime roundtable at The Shard to discuss the topic of artificial intelligence in business and its associated risks, rewards, and innovations via a keynote speech by Roland Carandang (Managing Director and Global Leader for Digital Identity practice, Protiviti).

The CEO, HRD and NED attendees represented industries such as media, finance, technology and logistics. Together, they explore digital transformation challenges such as skills gaps, the need for governance frameworks that enable risk-free experimentation, and change management challenges.

Business leaders are struggling to bridge skills gaps within teams and the broader business amid the rampant skills shortage within the talent market. Attendees agreed that a slow and steady approach was best, especially when combined with group learning across different generations. “When we talk about trust and understanding, and using stepping stones, start with something manageable for your business where people can start to recognise, ‘actually, it's not as scary as I thought,” said one attendee.

“This is going to be counteracted by the younger generations, the generations that are coming through now that are using AI. They use it at school, and they're using it for their degrees. They're probably using it at work, so there must be a meeting of minds somewhere. But I think you've got to start embracing some form of AI, generative or not. It’s a small step.

“If you've got a team of people—we were talking about this idea of a ‘shadow board’—the shadow board brings in the different generations, asks different questions, helps them educate. Because it shouldn't just be top down into the organisation, it should be from the organisation up.”

Digital transformation strategies require clear governance frameworks to ensure the tools are used responsibly and ethically, particularly as part of marketing and where data use is concerned. However, some business leaders find balancing ethical AI use, real-world applications, and board-level stakeholder expectations challenging.

One attendee said, “Where we’re leveraging our AI is at the business unit level, not at the board level, so we’ve got the board members who don’t understand the subsidiary businesses that are leveraging AI, and therefore, how can one expect them to govern effectively?”

Roland says, “Business leaders should continue to define the vision for the organisation and the insights they need to execute and potentially adapt it. Increasingly, they should expect this to be technically viable, and their team will consider AI amongst the many capabilities that may be used to achieve this."

Business leaders face a daunting task when transitioning into a data-driven model, especially where unstructured data is concerned. With potentially decades of files incorrectly tagged across multiple file structures and formats, it's challenging to release silos and maintain data quality and accessibility.

The assembled business leaders suggested that organisations start with manageable AI pilots and proof-of-concepts rather than attempting large-scale transformations. However, technical pilots have the potential to provide unrealistic expectations around the resources and access available.

“Many clients are running proof-of-concepts. This is a sensible approach to innovating but, too often, we are simply proving the technology works as the vendor claims it does. There are more challenging dimensions that merit early testing as well, for example, how the data will be consumed in the future, which team will be supporting the process in operation, and how key stakeholders will feel if the proof-of-concept is wildly successful.”

Business leaders agree that pilots should be designed to reflect the capabilities and constraints of the organisation accurately and would ideally shift the focus from technical abilities to solving tangible value. This also helps secure buy-in from sceptical workers as well as board-level stakeholders.

Several executive attendees stressed the importance of using AI to achieve specific business goals rather than just implementing the technology for its own sake. They agree that a good place to start is by identifying specific business challenges and identifying whether GenAI or similar tech can mitigate them.

Generative AI enhances board-level succession planning by predicting leadership needs and transition scenarios. It can now offer unbiased candidate evaluations, identify leadership gaps, and support development plans. As we learn more, it will mitigate more risk, benchmark industry trends, and ensure future-ready leadership. In short, it facilitates more informed, strategic decisions.

“Often, the problem that I'm trying to resolve most of the time in business is an inefficiency of some sort, and I think there's probably lots of untapped potential in my business. Workers are finding smart workarounds,” one attendee said.

“In a previous life, I’d have said, ‘That’s a great way of saving costs.’ Now, I'm looking through a new lens and saying, ‘They can now focus on the stuff that really matters.’ The thing that we all crave, the thing we possibly lose sight of in our world, is a real, personal human interaction about products or services. There’s a wealth of untapped potential. I just need to create a vacuum where people share what they’re doing; share across functions—they probably already are—I just need to shine a light on it in a very positive way.”

Visit the Robert Half blog for more information on the future of work, or download our guide on shaping the future of work. To talk to an expert about staffing your business for the challenges ahead, contact our recruitment team today.

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