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Artificial intelligence has moved rapidly from experimentation into everyday board work.
The 2026 Board Effectiveness Survey found that 92% of directors have used AI for board work in the previous six months, compared with 69% in 2025. Governance practices have not kept pace: 63% of boards have no formal AI policy, and only 6% have an enforced policy.
Following OnBoard’s AI Vision Keynote, we spoke with AJ Crabill, Director of Governance at the Council of the Great City Schools and author of Great on Their Behalf, and Larry Tyler, Chairman and CEO of Practical Governance Group and co-author of Practical Governance.
Their perspectives, considered alongside the survey findings, point to four priorities for boards:
- Preserve independent judgment
- Turn institutional memory into actionable context
- Use AI to strengthen preparation and accountability
- Build trust and accessibility into adoption.
The next phase of AI in the boardroom depends on whether boards establish the governance practices needed to use the technology well.
Preserve Judgement While Amplifying Effectiveness
For Crabill, one principle stands above the rest: AI should support the judgment directors bring, and the responsibility for that judgment stays with them.
He cautions against “cognitive offloading,” allowing technology to perform thinking that should remain the responsibility of directors. Boards need to openly establish where AI use is appropriate, where it is not, and what independent judgment requires from every person. That is the work an AI governance policy does.
During the AI Vision Keynote, CEO Marc Huffman told the audience that expecting AI to function as a board member misunderstands what a board is for, since boards exist because of human judgment, accountability, and the challenge directors bring to each other in the room. The survey reinforces the need for those boundaries. Boards with enforced AI policies reported stronger effectiveness, collaboration, and confidence in security than boards without policies. Six years of survey data show the same pattern on the people side: 87% of respondents report at least one board member who does not contribute effectively, a figure that has held steady even as board technology advanced. Boards building an AI governance strategy are addressing that gap directly.
The implication reaches past the technology itself. Boards also need to govern how directors use it.
Turn Institutional Memory Into Actionable Context
Boards accumulate years of minutes, reports, decisions, discussions, and unresolved questions. AI creates an opportunity to turn that history into institutional memory directors can actually reach.
Crabill sees significant potential here, and he mentions that storing information differs from making it useful. The real challenge is retrieving the right amount of context at the moment a director needs it. It is the same problem behind the governance questions most boards cannot answer about their own history. That challenge is what OnBoard introduced Governance IQ to solve. The framework grounds every answer in three layers of context: the industry the organization operates in, the board’s own record, and the expertise each director brings. At the keynote, Chief Product Officer Tim Adair showed what that produces. A first-year director and a ten-year veteran open the same board book and each receive a briefing built for them.
The survey suggests boards are beginning to experience this benefit: 33% of respondents said AI has provided faster access to relevant information and historical decisions.
Done well, AI-supported institutional memory helps boards close the governance continuity gap as directors rotate, revisit the reasoning behind past decisions, and bring unresolved issues forward when they become relevant again. Chief Customer Officer Anusha Srijeyanathan described the version that matters most for onboarding new directors. A new director asks to be caught up on the last two years and walks into the first meeting with context that used to take six months to build.
Help Directors Ask Better Questions and Follow Through
According to the survey, 50% of respondents cite increased efficiency in board meeting preparation, while 43% report more concise and actionable meeting minutes.
Tyler sees another opportunity: using AI as a second set of eyes.
Tyler questioned the accounting method used in his homeowner’s financial statements. He turned to LLMs to research common practice, then used what he found to test the assumptions behind the information presented to him. His experience points to a broader opportunity, since AI can help directors challenge assumptions and ask better questions.
Tyler also sees value in AI-generated action items that capture commitments and follow-ups, helping boards improve follow-through on board decisions between meetings.
Build Trust and Accessibly Into Adoption
The rapid adoption of AI also creates risk.
The survey found that confidence in board security fell 15 points from 2025 to 2026. Among respondents reporting negative effects from AI, 38% cited concerns related to data privacy, confidentiality, and data usage. Another 21% pointed to gaps in AI governance policies.
Both Crabill and Tyler say these issues should be addressed before boards become increasingly dependent on AI.
Board discussions routinely involve confidential information, making clear boundaries around what can enter an AI system essential.
They recommend boards evaluate data integrity, confidentiality, information governance, backups, cybersecurity, and resilience before selecting an AI partner. The AI security risks boards should evaluate and board portal security both belong on that list, alongside independent verification such as SOC 2 Type II compliance. At the keynote, OnBoard committed to four rules that speak directly to those criteria. The system never trains on your data. It respects the permissions your governance framework already defines. Every answer comes from the board’s actual record, and it says so when it lacks enough information. Institutional memory gets surfaced while the director applies the judgment.
Adoption must also account for directors with varying levels of technological comfort. Tyler advocates simple interfaces and practical education instead of expecting directors to become experts in prompting. Crabill suggests boards can move forward while providing transitional support to members who need more assistance.
Push AI Into the Work That Matters Most
Boards are already using AI to speed up preparation and reach information faster, and its potential for higher-level governance remains largely untapped. Only 14% of survey respondents reported improved strategic scenario planning, and 7% cited stronger risk identification and governance oversight.
The opportunity is to move past efficiency and use AI to help directors reach context and test assumptions, supported by clear policies and technology a board can trust. That is the future OnBoard described at the keynote: every director amplified.
Watch the full AI Vision Keynote.
Adopt AI Without Widening Risk
Speed decisions across the board by trimming prep time and surfacing context in one secure portal, with agendas from a prompt, on‑page briefs, and minutes drafts generated by AI inside your governance record.
About The Author
- Ben Blanc is the Brand Narrative Manager at OnBoard, where he shapes the company's public voice across social media, live programming, and external communications. With 18+ years of experience spanning media, operations, and marketing, he brings a blend of storytelling instinct and editorial discipline to B2B SaaS. Ben has spent his career turning complex ideas into clear, accessible, and actionable narratives. At OnBoard, his focus is on thought leadership grounded in real customer proof, credible perspective, and content worth paying attention to.
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