AI governance insights on camera

Board oversight of AI propels companies forward

As AI business solutions continue to emerge, boards can shape the futures of their organizations through their oversight of management’s deployment of this technology.

Boards have the experience and vision to lead in this area, and conscientious directors are working to educate themselves on the technology while considering how to add people with deep AI insights to their rosters.

In this series of videos, Grant Thornton professionals and prominent governance and AI thought leaders share their perspectives on how boards can nudge their organizations toward effective and profitable AI uses that remain consistent with organizational principles.

How boards can promote tangible AI benefits

One of the board’s oversight responsibilities related to AI is to ask pointed questions to help determine which AI use cases are likely to produce immediate, tangible results.

In these two videos, Grant Thornton Chief Strategy Officer Chris Smith and Domino Data Lab Head of AI Strategy Kjell Carlsson discuss:

• How governance enables tactical application of AI ethics
• The board’s role in supporting AI projects that will deliver a return on investment

“It is very likely in your organizations that you will find folks who are already going after those valuable use cases,” Carlsson said. “They’re just being lost in the sea of other, louder, more boasting parts of the organization.”

Turn AI into ROI

Although generative AI holds tremendous promise for the future, Carlsson said boards need to help their organizations tap into more proven, established AI use cases to ensure a healthy return on investment and maintain leadership’s appetite for adopting AI technology.  

5:11 | Transcript

Support your AI business champions

Every organization has people who excel at developing AI solutions to address key business objectives, according to Carlsson. He explains how boards can find and support those people.

4:54 | Transcript

Key governance objectives and disruptive opportunities

While ensuring that guardrails are in place for AI is a critical task for governance, boards also need to make sure that their organizations aren’t falling behind in their use of AI.

In these two videos:

• Margot Carter, Founder and CEO of Living Mountain Capital LLC and Co-Founder of Cien.ai, discusses the three key objectives for AI implementation — and how to achieve them.
• Anna Catalano, a member of multiple boards and governance consultant, explains that directors need to be vigilant for the potential for AI to disrupt an organization’s entire business model.

“Boards need to really explore not only how AI can help do our current business better, but how it might be a disruptor for the business model that we have,” Catalano says.

Gaining a competitive advantage

Boards should be mindful of AI’s potential for raising revenue, lowering costs and reducing risks, according to Carter.

2:24 | Transcript

AI’s operating model implications

Because of its potential to disrupt business models, Catalano says AI is different from the many other technological developments that have required board oversight in recent years.

2:40 | Transcript

Consider AI’s implications for your people

To enable organizations to get the most out of their AI initiatives, boards need to keep management focused on the impact the technology will have on the organization’s people. In these two videos, Grant Thornton Growth Advisory Services Managing Director Joe Ranzau discusses:

• How boards can make sure organizations are training people to take advantage of AI and manage the risks associated with the technology.
• The role boards play in overseeing management of the risks HR organizations face when they incorporate AI into their processes.

“We have to prepare folks, but we also need to make sure we’re caring for the culture of the organization,” Ranzau said.

Get more perspective from Ranzau in these videos. 

Preparing people to take advantage of AI

Boards need to establish strategy and standards for AI use in their organization and also make sure resources are allocated appropriately toward training, Ranzau explains.

2:00 | Transcript

Understanding AI use within the HR function

Strong AI governance requires boards to ask the right questions to get a complete picture of the opportunities, risks and potential consequences that can arise from AI use by HR personnel, Ranzau says.

1:53 | Transcript

Oversight of systems, data security and AI risks

In these three videos, Grant Thornton Risk Advisory Principals Johnny Lee and Ethan Rojhani describe how boards can help management make sure systems and data are ready to facilitate AI capabilities while maintaining careful oversight over the risks.

“You bring a multidisciplinary team to the table,” Lee said. “You have an HR representative to speak to those concerns. You have a finance representative to speak to those data sets and those concerns, those risks. Likewise with legal and operations and compliance and IT. So that’s the bedrock. You have those multidisciplinary perspectives brought to bear. And then you consult niche expertise where you don’t have it in-house.”

Watch the videos for more insights from Lee and Rojhani.

How cybersecurity and AI risk management intersect

The need for attention from throughout the organization makes management’s efforts to manage AI risks analogous to cybersecurity practices, according to Lee and Rojhani.

3:56 | Transcript

AI data security tips for boards

Gaining a complete understanding of an organization’s data assets is a key prerequisite for managing risks related to AI. Lee and Rojhani share their perspectives.

2:44 | Transcript