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Mark McNamara · 23 July 2026 · Open

The Question Most Boards Aren't Asking About AI

Most directors are asking whether AI is relevant to their board. The real question is whether AI is already at work inside their organisation — and whether management knows about it.

board oversightAI riskgovernance fundamentals

The Question Most Boards Aren't Asking About AI

When I ask directors whether their board is ready for AI, the answer is usually a variation of, "We're not sure AI is relevant to our industry yet."

This is the wrong question.

The right question is: Where is AI already being used in our organisation?

The answer will almost certainly surprise you.

The Shadow AI Problem

AI tools are not waiting for board approval. Employees across every function — marketing, sales, HR, finance, legal, operations — are adopting AI tools to do their jobs faster. They are drafting contracts with large language models, generating board pack summaries with AI, using AI-driven recruitment tools, and automating customer communications.

This is happening without governance frameworks, without risk assessments, and in most cases, without the board's knowledge.

Industry research suggests that a significant majority of AI usage in organisations occurs outside formal IT procurement processes. This is not a technology problem. It is a governance problem.

What This Means for Directors

The boards that will be caught off guard are not those that ignored AI. They are those that assumed AI was not yet relevant to their business.

If your organisation is using AI tools — and it almost certainly is — then as a director, you have a responsibility to understand:

  • What data is being fed into these tools
  • Whether that data includes personal, confidential, or commercially sensitive information
  • What contractual terms govern the use of those tools
  • Whether the outputs are being verified before they inform business decisions
  • Who in the organisation has visibility over this usage

The First Step

You do not need to become an AI expert. But you do need to ask management three questions at your next board meeting:

  1. Where is AI currently being used across our organisation? Ask for a survey, not speculation.
  2. What governance, if any, applies to that usage? Ask for the policy, not a promise.
  3. Who is responsible for monitoring and managing AI-related risks? Ask for a name, not a committee.

The goal is not to slow down innovation. It is to ensure that AI adoption is visible, intentional, and governed — rather than invisible, ad hoc, and unmanaged.

The Calm Path Forward

This is not a call to panic. It is a call to act. Boards that ask the right questions early will build confidence through clarity. Those that wait will find themselves responding to incidents they could have prevented.

Start with one question at your next meeting: "Where is AI already being used in this organisation?"

The answer will tell you everything you need to know about the state of your AI governance.