Society public company members across sizes and industries responding to the most recent Society / Deloitte Board Practices Quarterly survey: “Future of tech: Artificial intelligence (AI)” provided insights on various aspects of their companies’ artificial intelligence practices, including where in the organization AI resides, use policies/frameworks, risk mitigation measures, education and training, and board oversight.
Based on the results, it is clear that the use or consideration of AI is still in the nascent stages for most respondent companies (and perhaps most companies, generally). Given how quickly AI is evolving and penetrating the workplace, we would expect to see significantly different results one year from now.
Among the takeaways:
Use of AI (n=79) — Those companies currently considering or focused on AI to some degree are most commonly doing so in relation to Sales / Marketing and/or Product Development, followed by Legal, Finance / Accounting, Human Resources, and Risk. More than one-third of respondents reported that their company is not currently focused on or considering AI.
Management responsibility (n=75) — A majority of companies task the IT/Tech department or function with primary responsibility or shared primary responsibility for AI matters, while 40% reported charging a cross functional working group with primary responsibility.
Which functional area or department in your company has primary responsibility for AI matters? Select all that apply. (75 responses)
Board oversight structure (n=75) — A plurality of respondents (29%) said that neither the board nor a board committee has express responsibility for AI, whereas 16% allocate primary oversight to the audit committee. Nearly one-fifth indicated that the topic is not yet being discussed at the board level.
AI on the agenda (n=73) — AI-related topics have not made an appearance on a full board or committee meeting agenda for a plurality of boards represented by respondents (44%). The most common frequency of AI-related topics on the board’s or responsible committee’s agenda for the balance of companies represented by respondents is ad hoc or on an as-needed basis.
Workplace policies (n=69) — Nearly half (and a plurality) of respondents said that the use of AI tools is neither expressly permitted or prohibited by the company, while 25% said they are allowed for specific uses and 9% said they are allowed for any use. Other responses (16%) included, e.g., use is permitted but is not allowed to include the input of confidential company information, use is restricted to legitimate business purposes.
Does your company permit the use of AI tools by employees? (69 responses)
Only 13% of companies have an IA use framework, policy(ies), or code of conduct; another 36% are currently considering this; and one-third said they don’t (and are not currently considering). (n=70)
Less than 10% of companies have revised corporate policies (e.g., privacy, cyber, risk management, records retention) to address the use of IA; another 42% are currently considering this; and more than one-third said they have not done so (and are not currently considering). (n=67)
Risk mitigation (n=63) — Those companies that have adopted/implemented risk mitigation measures relative to AI most commonly identified measures involving additional human oversight, enhanced transparency, and vendor/supplier due diligence requirements or contractual provisions.
Education/Training (n=63) — Just 11% of companies provide education/training on AI for employees and 6% do so for boards.
Responses tended to vary by company size. Access the survey results online and by company size here. Small-cap and private company findings were omitted from the report and the accompanying demographics reports due to limited respondent populations; however, members may access those results by emailing Randi at rmorrison@societycorpgov.org.
Access additional resources on our Artificial Intelligence page.
This post first appeared in the weekly Society Alert!