98% of midsize companies have debated whether to include AI in board decisions, according to a survey by Board Intelligence.
The Summer 2026 edition of the Board Value Index analyzed just over 400 board directors, CEOs and CFOs in the UK, US, Scandinavia and the Middle East, and the corresponding companies had annual revenues ranging from £50 million (c. $66.8 million) to more than £500 million (c. $668 million).
49% of respondents have moved to the implementation stage of integrating AI into the boardroom decision-making process, meaning they are actively discussing which parts of this process to delegate to AI.
Meanwhile, another 34% have discussed AI at the board level without formally proposing to make any specific changes, while another 15% have discussed AI but let company management decide possible actions.
Boards that have not considered the use of AI in decision-making are now an overwhelming minority, according to Board Intelligence data, which also shows that flirtations with AI come at a time when only 37% of directors or executives describe their boards as “an essential tool for value creation.”
Directors dissatisfied with board performance
Board Intelligence is a London-based provider of boardroom software and advisory services and is keen to highlight the shortcomings of pre-existing approaches to board management.
However, their survey would indicate that some executives and directors are not entirely satisfied with the performance of their companies' boards, and that artificial intelligence tools can be a route to reaching more informed decisions.
While 79% of directors say their companies' boards enable innovation, only 18% agree that boards “strongly” enable innovation.
Similarly, 86% of respondents reported that “overly rigid or inconsistent processes” have resulted in poor, delayed or rushed decisions in the past six months, while 41% say their boards spend too much time discussing past performance.
It is in that context that boards of directors have begun to discuss the use of AI, which could help them address many of the problems they encounter, according to Megan Pantelides, senior director at Board Intelligence.
she tells him Technological Republic“Problems that AI can realistically address include information overload (processing information more quickly; detecting trends, patterns, and risks that might otherwise be missed), information versus management asymmetry, inadequate preparation time (given that most board members work part-time on multiple boards), and cognitive bias.”
According to Pantelides, these problems are common and have “a direct impact” on the quality and robustness of the decisions boards make, and AI provides scalable methods to solve them.
Do the 'analytical heavy lifting' to make decisions
Another rationale for integrating AI tools is accountability, as boards of directors are under increasing levels of scrutiny in an increasingly wide range of areas and from an increasing range of sources.
“Directors have been struggling to keep pace with their growing competencies and the increasingly complex business and governance landscape, and they know they will not meet this challenge using the same processes they have relied on for decades,” he explains. “AI, used well, gives boards the layer of intelligence they need to ask better questions, challenge management more rigorously, and make decisions with greater confidence.”
In terms of what exactly AI does within the decision-making process, Pantelides says it primarily does the “analytical heavy lifting” that can help inform board decisions.
In other words, AI is “synthesizing large volumes of information, unearthing patterns in the data, pointing out risks and assumptions that might otherwise be buried in a 200-page dashboard package.”
What's interesting is that, at least at this time, there aren't many specific examples of named companies actively using AI or admitting to using it in board decisions, although Pantelides does cite Abu Dhabi-based sovereign wealth fund Mubadala as an organization with an AI member on its investment committee.
Another high-profile company that has recorded the use of AI in its boardroom is Lloyds Banking Group, which in April began using Board Intelligence's own automated tools to help executives prepare for meetings, mainly by analyzing and summarizing documentation.
In the future, Lloyds could potentially give AI a larger role in its board meetings, using it to identify and reduce biases in decision-making and to provide information support in numerous areas (e.g. cybersecurity, M&A activity, sustainability, market analysis).
Legal responsibility will ensure that directors reserve the last word
However, Pantelides suggests that it may take some time before AI agents make decisions, rather than simply informing them.
She says: “The fact that such a high proportion of boards are discussing which decisions should continue to be led by humans indicates that boards recognize that there are limits to the role of AI in governance, and the question they are grappling with is where the boundary between AI-assisted analysis and human judgment should be.”
And ultimately, legal responsibility will likely always lie with (human) board members, meaning any director who wants to keep the threat of litigation to a minimum would do well to verify and authorize recommended actions themselves.
“Decisions such as approving policy changes are at one end of the spectrum; decisions about mergers and acquisitions, culture, leadership, strategy and crisis response are at the other,” Pantelides concludes. “In general, boards are not prepared to delegate the latter, nor should they.”
