AI Consulting for the Board – A Matter of Trust, and How Soon?

By Alan Hewitt

For over 40 years I have been involved in some aspect of consulting, providing advice and or guidance to many clients. I have been wondering for a while whether the advances with AI technology would or could have an impact on some aspects of this type of work and whether companies offering consultancy services will need to reassess what they offer and maybe change the types of consulting they perform.?

I hadn’t progressed this line of thinking much until I read an article on the BBC website entitled Government digital document app launching in summer.

The article details what the UK is looking to achieve by the widespread adoption of AI technologies across all government departments. I’ve extracted the following from the article, not because it offers any spectacular insight but because it does reference a potential transfer of dependence from accessing and purchasing consulting services to the increased use of AI to replace existing purchased consulting services:

Most of the tools in the Humphrey suite are generative AI models - in this case, technology which takes large amounts of information and summarises it in a more digestible format - to be used by the civil service.

Among them is Consult, which summarises people's responses to public calls for information.

The government says this is currently done by expensive external consultants who bill the taxpayer "around ￡100,000 every time”.

There are many instances for which external agencies are providing, via consulting service contracts, expertise and information vital to the effective and efficient running of company boards. Clearly a board must ensure that it is kept up to date with the latest and most relevant regulatory changes that could or will impact the markets and geographies where they work. This is a function that is satisfied in many cases currently by purchasing consulting services who will do the research and provide the required updates as and when required. BUT, isn’t this a case where AI could provide at least some of this service in real time and at a fraction of the cost?

The LinkedIn post The Impact of Artificial Intelligence on Corporate Boards discusses AI and the board.

I strongly recommend that you read it in full. Here’s an important part:

To understand the impact of AI on decision-making, it is crucial to examine the role and functions of corporate boards. A company's Board of Directors (BOD) serves as its nucleus, entrusted with the responsibility of managing the organization's affairs and ensuring long-term value creation for its various stakeholders.

The BOD's multi-dimensional role encompasses strategic planning, legal compliance, fiduciary duties, financial oversight, governance oversight, and risk management – all areas where AI's influence is poised to be significant.?Directors may be executive directors, actively?involved in?day-to-day operations, or non-executive directors, who provide strategic guidance, independent oversight, and corporate governance.?

At the heart of a BOD's responsibilities lies the intricate world of complex decision-making. Whether navigating financial matters, shaping long-term vision, diversifying business activities, or addressing shareholder grievances, the BOD is tasked with deliberating and directing activities and?actions that shape the company's future.

In these complex scenarios, AI's potential impact is profound. With its ability to process vast amounts of data quickly and efficiently,?AI can assist directors in making more informed decisions. By rapidly analyzing extensive datasets, identifying patterns, and predicting outcomes, AI can?minimize uncertainties and provide valuable insights to support strategic decisions. Thus, directors can free up their time to focus on the things that humans are good at, i.e., inquire, explore, investigate, and understand the impact of their decisions.

I’ve?highlighted?a couple of sentences that I feel are significant. The role of trusted advisor (consultant) can be potentially performed in a very successful way by AI once AI earns the same level of trust as a consultant would. Consulting relies heavily on trust and reaching the point where the information and guidance provided is accepted because trust has been established.?

As we know AI is currently, in a very public way, being shown, occasionally, to be less than reliable. One very public example of that being with one of Apples products. This article, again from the BBC, says that Apple suspends error-strewn AI generated news alerts.

It is quite clear that while AI is more than capable of performing some of the services currently undertaken by consultancy organisations it does need to build trust that the information it provides is both current and accurate. This Science Exchange article from Caltech entitled Can We Trust Artificial Intelligence? speaks to the issue.

An extract reads:

What does it take to trust AI?

To trust a technology, you need evidence that it works in all kinds of conditions, and that it is accurate. "We live in a society that functions based on a high degree of trust. We have a lot of systems that require trustworthiness, and most of them we don't even think about day to day," says?Caltech professor Yisong Yue. "We already have ways of ensuring trustworthiness in food products and medicine, for example. I don't think AI is so unique that you have to reinvent everything. AI is new and fresh and different, but there are a lot of common best practices that we can start?from.”

The article makes some really good points, namely that there is still work to be done to ensure that the outputs from AI are current, accurate and, wherever possible, free from bias. On that last point all human beings are, to some extent, biased just from their life experiences but maybe we can develop AI systems that have fewer human fallibilities.

In summary, AI can and will challenge the existing consulting business model, including the provision of consulting services to boards. Board members themselves will need to become more proficient with AI technology and learn what they can and cannot trust about the advice and guidance AI provides.

The challenge for consultants (and boards) lies in how to adapt to this new AI-enabled world.

Time will tell.

About the author: Alan Hewitt is a Non-executive Director at Praxonomy. Alan has worked in IT Services and Consulting for nearly 40 years including 30 years at IBM, where he was an Executive Partner in IBM’s Global Consulting Business responsible for the development of the Workforce Transformation Practice. Since leaving IBM in 2010, he has worked as an independent Business Consultant working for major companies across industries and the world. Alan is a Fellow of both the IET and BCS.

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