Boards were designed for a world that moved slowly. You set a strategy, reviewed it once a year, and relied on management to execute while you oversaw risk and governance. That world has gone.

AI is changing the pace of business faster than most boards can comprehend. Decisions that once took months now need to be made in days. The risks are no longer just financial or regulatory but ethical, reputational, and existential. Yet many boards still operate as if they have time to “get their heads round it”.

They don’t.

The question is not whether boards are useful in the age of AI, but whether they are fit for it. Governance must evolve from oversight to insight. Directors need to understand not how the technology works, but how it changes behaviour, competitiveness, and control. They must learn to ask different questions, about data integrity, algorithmic bias, human accountability, and the long-term implications of short-term automation.

The challenge is that too many boards are filled with people who built their reputations in a different era. Experience is valuable, but only when it’s coupled with curiosity. A director who doesn’t understand AI should be asking how to learn, not hiding behind the comfort of risk registers and compliance frameworks.

The future board will not be a ceremonial group meeting four times a year. It will be an active, learning organism, constantly scanning the horizon, understanding the interplay of technology, people, and ethics, and ensuring that leadership stays one step ahead of disruption rather than one step behind it.

If boards can’t do that, then AI won’t make them redundant. They’ll do that all by themselves.