Far too often, I am seeing organisations rush to integrate AI, fuelled by the fear of missing out. The technology is genuinely transformative. But the pace of adoption is frequently outstripping the governance maturity needed to deploy it well.
The human dimension of AI implementation deserves more attention at the board table. When organisations adopt AI tools, they are making decisions that affect people's work, livelihoods and professional identity. These are not purely technical decisions, and they should not be delegated as such.
We have a choice. We can empower our people with tools that enhance their work or elevate them to more valuable tasks. Or we can treat AI adoption as a cost reduction exercise and deal with the consequences.
The organisations getting this right share common characteristics. They have clear governance frameworks for AI adoption that include impact assessments on their workforce. They involve affected staff early in the process, not as an afterthought. They invest in retraining and transition support alongside the technology investment. And their boards ask questions about the human impact, not just the efficiency gains.
For directors, the practical question is straightforward: does management have a governance framework for AI adoption that addresses workforce impact, ethical use, data governance and stakeholder communication? If the answer is "we're still working on that," the organisation may be moving faster than its governance capability allows.
FOMO is not a strategy. Thoughtful adoption, guided by clear governance principles, is.