boards of directors admit not having the skills

Only 2% of board members say they have the knowledge and expertise to oversee the adoption of generative AI. Two-thirds of board members trust the DSI or CTO on this subject.

AdvertisementBusiness leaders have mixed opinions on the ideal pace of AI adoption and their organization’s readiness, according to a Deloitte Global report released Tuesday. Despite the lack of consensus on these topics, they agree to recognize the lack of knowledge in AI within boards of directors.

The survey of 468 board members and senior executives in 57 countries shows that only 2% of them believe they have in-depth knowledge and experience of AI (19% would be modest). additional). Moreover, the subject is not mentioned so frequently within boards of directors. Only 14% of respondents say they discuss AI at every meeting, while 25% say it is on the agenda twice a year, and 16% once a year. Nearly half (45%) of respondents even say that AI has never been included on their board of directors’ agenda.

A fully ready organization for only 3% of respondents

“Rather than AI specifically, boards of directors often have digital transformation on the agenda, of which AI is a part,” says Chikatomo Hodo, who is a member of the boards of Orix Corporation, Konica Minolta, Mitsubishi Chemical Group Corporation and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking. However, around half of respondents to the Deloitte survey say they are dissatisfied with the lack of time devoted to this subject during board meetings.

Only 3% of respondents believe their organization is fully ready to adopt technology, while 41% believe the opposite. “This perception of insufficient preparedness could also be behind the growing sense of urgency as AI capabilities continue to develop,” Deloitte said in a blog post. 44% of leaders think that their organization must accelerate on the subject. An opportunity for DSIs and CTOs, seen as the most legitimate contacts on this subject by two thirds of respondents.

Before implementation, remove obstacles

The research firm Gartner forecasts that IT spending will amount to $5.26 trillion in 2024, representing growth of 7.5% compared to 2023, driven in particular by investments in generative AI. The fact remains that the initial enthusiasm – when ChatGPT appeared a little hastily as the immediate answer to multiple problems – is starting to fade, because managers are faced with a long list of obstacles that prevent companies to quickly achieve their AI goals. Interest from boards of directors has fallen by eight points since the first quarter of 2024, underlines another Deloitte report published in August.

AdvertisementDaniela Weber-Rey, independent director at Fnac Darty and, until recently, HSBC Trinkaus & Burkhardt AG, explains that organizations must ensure, before any implementation of AI, that they have solid foundations . “If you don’t have a proper data management system in place, you can’t really fully utilize AI or generative AI. » Even more difficult, according to her: ensuring that employees actually adopt the tools. Especially since “many areas targeted by AI or generative AI have a lot of employees, such as marketing, sales, risk, auditing and financial reporting,” comments the administrator, quoted by Deloitte. The firm also indicates that its quarterly report assessing the level of deployment of generative AI shows that the technology is still mainly at the prototype stage, or even proof of concept.