92. AI vs. Humans in the Boardroom: Whom Do You Trust, with Babs Ryan.

In this episode of On Boards, hosts Joe Ayoub and Raza Shaikh speak with Babs Ryan, an innovation executive, board director, and AI strategist with experience spanning global technology, marketing, consumer products, and financial services.

Ryan discusses the evolving role of artificial intelligence in governance, the future of AI on boards of directors, and realistic scenarios for AI adoption, in a discussion about the possible ways AI can be integrated into boardrooms.

The episode also explores broader governance issues, including board refreshment and oversight responsibilities, and how AI could help surface blind spots in leadership decision-making.

Key takeaways

• AI as an accelerator

  • Ryan believes that an AI entity on the board could be programmed to make decisions in the best interests of shareholders.

• • AI would be able to look far beyond a typical human board members' scope of knowledge and realm of experience.

• • Organizations should focus on strategic and operational priorities with CEOs applying AI to those priorities, where it would be most effective.

• AI is evolving in the boardroom but not enough to take a board seat, at least in the near future 

  • Short term: Boards receive education on how to utilize AI as a tool to prepare for meetings, review minutes and retrieve information. 

  • Mid-term: Focus on strategy and building confidence with AI and use it to challenge assumptions and help identify blind spots and risks.

• • Trust in AI, like trust in new board members, must be earned over time through consistent, reliable contributions.

• • Legal, regulatory, and cultural readiness will ultimately determine how far AI can go, and when, in serving formal governance roles

• Exposing governance weaknesses

• • Concerns about AI exposing bias or underperformance point to broader challenges around board evaluation and refreshment.

• • AI adoption in the boardroom may accelerate necessary conversations about board member accountability, succession, and governance discipline.

• • Strong boards with high-performing directors are more likely to welcome AI-enabled scrutiny.

Quotes

" AI is not a strategy and it's not a product. It's an accelerator, something that helps you do something else better, faster, higher quality."

"People should stop looking for the 'use case' for AI and focus on their current strategic and operational priorities and then apply AI where it makes sense."

"An AI entity on the board… can be programmed to actually give decisions or answers in the best interest of the shareholders, which people don't always do."

Links

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

Board Search Secrets

Guest Bio

Babs Ryan was chief innovation officer of GE Capital's largest division where one of her many patents generated $800M in incremental revenue. A dual US/UK citizen, she has been onsite in 97 countries. She was a director and audit committee member of Workers Federal Credit Union with $2.6B in assets, overseeing M&A negotiations and CEO succession.

She is strategic advisor for Kintera AI, offering no code back-office processing/reconciliation and regulatory violation remediation for banks; board director and investment committee member at MarTech Main Street, Inc., a private multigenerational family business; and an advisory board director at Aviva Labs, a global beauty/aesthetics manufacturer and distributor.

Babs has also served as CEO of a marketing agency acquired by WPP, SVP of innovation at Capgemini's product design division (AI, digital twins, biosensors, MedTech, robotics), Agile principal at Thoughtworks, and GVP digital transformation at Publicis Sapient.