Your quarterly AI board update (Template inside)
Hi Everyone,
61% of CEOs told BCG their boards are pushing AI adoption too fast.
More than half said hype is making it harder for their boards to judge AI well, and the directors least confident in their own AI knowledge were the most likely to think their company was moving too slowly.
Today we're covering what to put in your next AI board update.
The four things your board wants to know
1. Money first
Show what you've spent against what you planned to spend, and tie the return to a metric the board already tracks, such as support cost per ticket or gross margin.
If the return hasn't arrived yet, say when you expect it and what you're watching in the meantime, such as weekly active users or hours saved per person.
2. Same three numbers, every quarter
When the metrics change from one meeting to the next, directors can't see a trend. So pick three numbers and report them every quarter, whatever they say:
- An adoption number, like how many people used the tools in real work each week
- A cost or return number, like tool spend against the hours saved
- A risk number, like open incidents or tools in use without approval
3. What you stopped
List the experiments you ended this quarter, what each one cost, and what you learned.
4. What you don't know yet
Say what's still open and when you'll have an answer. One line does it: "We don't know yet whether the support pilot holds up at full volume. We'll know by March."
Won't we look slow?
The evidence points the other way. In a Protiviti survey, 63% of companies reporting high returns on AI discussed it at every board meeting. Among companies with low returns, 13% did. Steady, plain reporting is what the companies getting results already do.
The cost of over-promising shows up fast. In April 2025, Duolingo's CEO Luis von Ahn told the company it would be "AI-first" and that AI use would count in performance reviews. The backlash was strong enough that he softened the memo publicly within weeks, and a year later Duolingo dropped the review requirement after employees asked whether they were meant to use AI for its own sake. A board hears those same big phrases, remembers them, and measures you against them.
Before your next board meeting
We've added an AI Update section to our Board Pre-Read Template, right after the KPI dashboard. It has the four parts above, ready to fill in. Grab the updated version even if you downloaded the template before.
Get your Board Pre-Read template here
(And if the pre-read format is new to you, we covered how to run the meeting in this issue in April)
Go deeper
👉 BCG: Sixty-One Percent of CEOs Say Their Boards Are Rushing AI Transformation — read this before your next board meeting to see exactly where CEOs and directors disagree on AI, and why.
👉 Protiviti: Only 26% of Directors Discuss AI at Every Board Meeting — use it to compare how often your board hears about AI with the companies seeing the highest returns.
👉 Jam.dev: The board deck template we wish we had as first-time founders — see how one Series A founder makes AI a standing item in every quarterly board deck.
👉 Harvard Law School Forum: How Boards Can Lead in a World Remade by AI — share this one with your directors; it was written for them.
Coming up tomorrow
In tomorrow's issue, you'll learn why chemistry is the wrong way to choose an executive coach, and what to bring to the first call instead.
That's it for today!