What boards and directors should be asking about AI

Governance, accountability and oversight. What a board is responsible for knowing when the organisation adopts AI.

Of the 1245 questions on the questions map, these 217 are the ones boards and directors have a specific reason to ask. 128 have a dedicated answer; the rest are partly answered or openly on the roadmap, and are marked as such rather than quietly dropped. Last reviewed: 13 October 2026 · Next review due: 13 October 2027.

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The 12 that matter most, with what the research says in one line.

• AnsweredWhat should a board ask about AI?

  Twelve questions, each paired with the answer that should worry you. Ask two or three in passing rather than as an agenda item.

• AnsweredIs our AI adoption drift or design?

  Most organisations are not choosing. They are accumulating decisions that were never made, which is drift with a strategy document attached.

• AnsweredWhat is the AI readiness lie?

  Readiness assessments measure intent and infrastructure. Neither predicts whether capability survives contact with the tools.

• AnsweredWho is accountable when AI gets it wrong?

  A person or an organisation, since nothing else can be: in England and Wales an AI system has no legal personality, and the Divisional Court held in 2025 that the duty to check stays with the professional. Answered 5 October 2026; how to allocate it inside an organisation is at /research/how-should-ai-decision-rights-be-allocated.

• PartialWhat are we legally required to do now?

  Article 4 on literacy since February 2025, Article 14 on oversight since August 2026. Not legal advice, and the guidance does not exist yet.

• AnsweredHow do you audit an AI-assisted decision?

  Article 12 requires the log. Article 14 does not require per-decision review, except for biometric identification, which almost everyone gets wrong.

• AnsweredIs usage the same as adoption?

  No. Seat counts and prompt volumes measure activity. Nothing in them says capability changed.

• AnsweredWhat is capability debt?

  Capability an organisation has stopped maintaining but still assumes it has. It comes due when the system fails or the question is novel.

• AnsweredShould we cut headcount because of AI?

  Open, and the useful version names the cases where it destroyed capability.

• AnsweredWhat is meaningful human oversight?

  A term from the autonomous-weapons literature now appearing in regulation. Open, and increasingly commercially relevant.

• AnsweredIs my organisation measuring the right thing?

  Almost certainly not. Licences, seats and prompts all rise while nothing changes about capability.

• AnsweredAre executives reading summaries instead of the source?

  A quiet change in how senior decisions get made, with no measurement anywhere. Open.

Everything else boards and directors ask

Grouped the way the map is grouped. Each links to its answer, or to its place on the map if it is still open.

Same questions, different reader: CHROs and HR leaders School and university leaders University students Early career and graduates Managers and team leads Regulated and expert professions Parents The full map, all 1245