Got your attention? Intended.

In the English language, synonyms for “mind” include “brain” and “intellectual capabilities”. When reviewing the composition of boards, one can be ensured both are adequately represented.

Lars Hellström leads Strategy and Business Development at Helvar Oy Ab and is a Boardman Member.

However, in the quest for the optimum, diversity is to be seek.

In Finnish companies, the emphasis on increasing the number of women on boards has been ongoing for a long time. For Finnish boards, this emphasis may now be extended to include foreigners living in Finland, as according to Tesi, the current share of foreign nationals on Finnish boards is only 7%.

In the quest for the optimal level of intellectual capabilities and experience, shall Boards include in the future also an artificial brain?

Shall you use an AI agent in board work?

AI’s “brain power” will undoubtedly outperform human brain power, perhaps making it even cheaper and faster for shareholders.

Artificial intelligence (AI) has become a powerful tool for various aspects of business, such as data aggregation and analysis, scenario planning and simulation, recommendation and optimization, and innovation (combining the existing in novel ways). AI can also inspire and challenge human creativity, by providing unexpected or unconventional viewpoints and inputs.

Hence, AI can help boards of directors in making better decisions, by providing insights, scenarios, and recommendations based on large and complex data sets. For example, at Helvar we apply AI/GenAI for market intelligence. A vital input to the decision-making.

However, we must consider the Board’s primary function – judgement. It is the ability to make the best decisions for the shareholders on various aspects of a company’s strategy and governance.

Applying strategic thinking, ethical reasoning, and stakeholder engagement are critical. Areas requiring higher-order cognitive skills, emotional intelligence, and moral values cannot/shall not be entrusted to AI (yet).

Can a Board be augmented with AI and virtually assisted?

Certainly.

AI can support board work in several ways, depending on the type and level of AI involved. According to a framework proposed by David Kiron and Michael Schrage from MIT Sloan Management Review (MIT Sloan Management Review, Magazine Summer 2019 issue: David Kiron and Michael Schrage: “Strategy for and with AI”) there are four types of AI decision systems. Advisory, assistive, autonomous, and collaborative.

• Advisory AI provides information and suggestions to human decision makers but does not execute any actions.
• Assistive AI executes actions based on human commands or approval.
• Autonomous AI executes actions without human intervention, but within predefined boundaries and rules.
• Collaborative AI interacts with humans in a dynamic and adaptive way, learning from feedback and adjusting its behaviour accordingly.

Will AI help board members in the very near future? It is still uncertain. With so many hallucinations observable in GenAI models’ output (so far), the phrase “lost in translation” gets a whole new meaning.

Given the strengths and weaknesses of both human judgement and AI tools, boards should aim to combine them in a synergistic and balanced way, in order to get the optimal decision-making results.

Boards should develop policies and processes for how to use AI in their work. They should supplement and enhance AI with their own knowledge, experience, intuition, and common sense.

Boards should also seek different and independent viewpoints and perspectives, both internally and externally, to challenge and enrich AI outcomes.

Latter would close the loop to the quest for diversity in Boards. Judgement capabilities will be for a while best provided by humans – a diverse group of humans, by experience country of origin, gender, age, and more.

As a foreigner living for decades in Finland, I am not concerned at all that AI will be applied in the best way in Finnish Boards over time. Applying common sense, technology optimism and openness to the new are strong characteristics that I have experienced in business in Finland.

I can imagine, that the topic will also appear in Boardman Trainings like the CG and Board Work in Finland Training. I signed up to the very first round of courses in 2021 and can warmly recommended them!

Author

Lars Hellström currently leads Strategy and Business Development at Helvar Oy Ab. His daily work is about transforming lighting and building automation to be more intelligent & sustainable with use of sensors, data, AI, cloud and other digital technologies. He strikes similarities with Formula-1 world-champion Nico Rosberg, having a Swedish-Finnish name, yet being German. He is a member of Boardman and an alumnus of Boardman’s CG and Board Work in Finland training class of 2021. Further blogs on AI in lighting control available at his LinkedIn account.

Read more and apply for Boardman Membership!