CEO Memo – How the human condition drives technology growth
According to a recent global survey by McKinsey & Company, 72 per cent of organisations are now regularly using AI, nearly double the rate from last year. This exponential growth is staggering with businesses having to move at lightening pace to adopt new governance measures. AI has become a significant focus here at Governance Institute, as organisations look to balance its potential with its associated risks.
The risks are more than financial. Our dependence on technology as a society was made abundantly clear during the recent CrowdStrike IT outage. A single software update led to a global outage that affected millions of people who couldn’t buy their groceries, get money from the bank or board a flight. The event illustrated just how deeply intertwined the human condition, our lives and technology have become. For governance leaders, everything we do is driven by the human condition — how we respond or are likely to respond to situations.
As professionals, we are the ones who must pre-empt these responses in order to manage risks effectively. This underscores the importance of our upcoming International Governance Leadership Forum (IGLC), running from 4-5 September, where we will explore the current issues organisations and the population more broadly faces. After the sell-out success of our Governance and Risk Management forum, I’d encourage you to grab your tickets soon so you can be a part of the discussion.
As we integrate AI into our governance frameworks, it is crucial to balance efficiency with ethical considerations and regulatory compliance. As businesses increasingly adopt AI in various operations, governance professionals must harness its potential while ensuring robust governance controls.
Our issues paper released last month, titled ‘Artificial Intelligence and Board Minutes,’ provides an in-depth analysis of the potential applications and challenges of using AI in board meetings and company secretarial practice.
The paper addresses critical risks such as data privacy, cybersecurity, intellectual property, accuracy of output and regulatory compliance. It emphasises the importance of managing these risks as part of good governance and explores the legal requirements for keeping minutes under section 251A of the Corporations Act 2001.
While services like Microsoft Teams, Zoom and Google Meet can generate meeting transcripts or summaries, and tools like Microsoft Copilot can extract actions from these summaries, paper notes are primarily recording and transcription services. AI capabilities lie in tools like Copilot, which can take these transcriptions and turn them into detailed minutes. However, AI may still lack the nuanced judgment required for effective minute-taking.
We invite you to get up to speed with all things AI governance by viewing our issues paper on our website. Tickets to the International Governance Leadership Conference can be found here. I hope to see you there!