Boardroom INSIDER for… NOVEMBER

AI Board Members?  Don’t Hold Your Breath

With corporate board members worldwide deluged with advice, warnings (and sales pitches) on artificial intelligence, a next step seems inevitable — naming an AI agent as an actual board member.  But the November issue of online governance monthly Boardroom INSIDER says not so fast.

Despite some breathless predictions in the technosphere, short-term legal and fiduciary reality will keep Robbie the robot out of the boardroom.  “Corporate personhood is controversial enough, without reaching for boardroom AI fiduciary personhood,” writes BI publisher and corporate speaker Ralph Ward.

Yet Ward writes that both the plusses and minuses of an AI board member will soon make the idea unavoidable.  The ability to scope everything in the board book (plus all corporate info, history, news and legal precedents) as a member (and even correct parliamentary procedure) is hard to deny. “A robot board member would also follow the best practice in board member job descriptions.”

The downsides are more damning. Hallucinations, data confidentiality, and legal liability would be killers — “is the SEC going to fine a bot?” Ward asks.  Yet automatic distaste for an AI director by current board members could show deeper issues, Ward writes.  “Is the real director concern that an AI might do a better job in the boardroom than themselves?”

Also in the November issue of Boardroom INSIDER …

How good governance can grow with a young company
5 steps to shaping your board “risk dashboard”
Q&A: How a new general counsel learns the boardroom

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…is an internationally-recognized writer and commentator on the role of boards of directors, the secrets of how benchmark boards excel, gaining a board seat, and the future of governance worldwide.

Ward is the publisher of the online email newsletter Boardroom INSIDER, the worldwide source for practical, first-hand advice on better boards and directors ( www.boardroominsider.com).

He is author of the books Hacking the Boardroom (2025), Board Seeker: Your Guidebook and Career Map into the Corporate Boardroom (2018), Boardroom Q&A (2011), The New Boardroom Leaders (2008), Saving the Corporate Board (2003), Improving Corporate Boards: The Boardroom INSIDER Guidebook (2000), and 21st Century Corporate Board (1997).

Ward is a certified trainer, and speaks internationally on board and governance topics, and presents a “Boardroom Masterclass” seminar worldwide, with recent programs in the Middle East, Asia and Africa.  His media appearances including CNNfn, C-SPAN, Voice of America, Bloomberg Money Show, National Public Radio, Marketplace, and CNBC (U.S. and U.K.).

Ward has also edited The Corporate Board magazine, the international journal of corporate governance, since 1990. He writes and comments on boardroom matters for a number of other publications, including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Across the Board, Crains, Vital Speeches, the Detroit Free Press, Barrons and INC.com., and serves on several advisory and non-profit boards.