The Board Selection Short List: Will It Be You or AI?

Reprinted from Private Company Director magazine

Is it time for boards to stop looking for use cases for AI, and give AI a seat and a vote?

Should AI be your next board member? You won’t be first. International Holding Company, based in Abu Dhabi, appointed ‘Aiden Insight,’ an AI-powered board observer and reported ‘groundbreaking recommendations.’ It’s time for boards to stop talking about using AI and appoint the “use case.”

Want to identify greatest-potential risks and most lucrative strategies in a heartbeat? Put shareholders first? Give AI a seat.

Who wouldn’t want to hear great questions from an independent, objective financial wiz and future trends analyst leveraging vast datasets — one that understands the market, differentiators and competitors?  Put AI on the proxy.

AI (or the Artificial Intelligence lifelike agent we'll call “She”) always reads the board packet, remembers verbatim from previous board meetings, and prepares agendas and documents promptly for committee meetings.

She's 100% independent-- not influenced by title, compensation, or the dinner last night. She asks great questions, by determining which are the most important questions that should be asked. And offers objective board assessments.

And promises diversity, of thought. Countless key skills. Give AI a vote.

Best of all, She can predict what’s likely to happen to the stock price or EBITDA if the board votes yea or nea, and votes accordingly. She uses past successes and quantum data to determine the likelihood of success, and even considers what competitors and customers are likely to do.

Just one little problem. Sometimes She hallucinates (i.e., creating outputs that are nonsensical or altogether inaccurate), but then, so do other board members.

Will you appoint her?