Simon Kriss is Chief AI Officer at simonkriss.ai and a CX and AI futurologist who works with company boards and C-suite executives. His aim is to help them understand where the AI opportunities lie for their businesses, and how they can get started with effective and ethical AI adoption. His talk focuses on helping boards meaningfully engage with AI governance by shifting their mindset before introducing skill sets and toolsets. Simon highlights that many board directors either see AI as irrelevant to their remit or, conversely, become fixated on technical minutiae. This confusion often stems from skipping straight to “how do we do it?” without first addressing “why” and “what.” Drawing parallels with climate change, he argues that boards intellectually acknowledge AI’s presence but struggle to believe in its practical value. Recent ADAPT research supports this, showing that 87% of CIOs report their AI initiatives have yet to deliver expected outcomes, often due to unclear objectives and weak executive sponsorship.

Simon points to cultural barriers in Australia, referencing a KPMG and University of Melbourne study that found Australians rank lowest globally in believing AI’s benefits outweigh its risks. This scepticism among board members, fuelled by media narratives around hallucinations and bias, underscores the urgent need to define the specific realities of AI within each organisation. Boards must be guided to explore how AI can deliver both efficiency gains (exploitation) and strategic transformation (exploration). Yet, many directors still ask, “What’s in it for me?”, using tools like ChatGPT to summarise sensitive board papers without understanding the privacy implications. This highlights a lack of digital literacy.

There is a regulatory imperative for board AI education. ASIC now expects board members to be as well-versed in AI as they are in cyber security, and upcoming federal transparency requirements will impact the entire Australian industry. Yet, many directors remain functionally illiterate in AI, lacking even basic distinctions between machine learning, generative AI and cognitive systems. Toolsets are crucial, Simon concludes, but without the right mindset and foundational knowledge, boards cannot effectively navigate the AI maze. Organisations must equip them not only with frameworks and metrics but also the language and confidence to govern AI responsibly.

Key Takeaways:1089624800

• Boards need a mindset shift before skillset or toolset development: Many directors either dismiss AI as a purely operational issue or become lost in technical detail. Building genuine board engagement requires first addressing beliefs and understanding around AI’s strategic relevance.
• AI literacy is now a regulatory expectation: ASIC mandates that directors be as informed about AI as they are about cybersecurity. Yet, most boards lack a functional understanding of core AI concepts, which risks non-compliance and poor decision-making.
• Australia lags in AI trust and readiness: According to KPMG and University of Melbourne research, Australia ranks lowest globally in believing AI’s benefits outweigh its risks. This cultural scepticism, combined with widespread misuse of tools like ChatGPT, shows the need for structured, ethical AI education at the board level.