Greg Brisco 🙏🏾
CEO & Board Advisor | Engineering Leadership Models for the AI Era
April 8, 2025
As a CEO who’s navigated AI’s complexities with boards globally, I’ve seen a seismic shift: AI governance is now a boardroom imperative. A groundbreaking March 2025 report from ISS-Corporate, confirms what leaders already feel: shareholders and stakeholders demand AI competence, transparency, and results, or else...
Let’s cut to the data. The ISS Corporate report reveals:
✅ AI Oversight is Exploding: 31% of S&P 500 boards now oversee AI (up from 17.1% in 2023).
✅ Shareholders Are Demanding Answers: AI-related proposals quadrupled in 2024, targeting governance gaps, ROI clarity, and ethical risks.
✅ Investors Are Watching: 83% of institutional investors now rank AI preparedness as a top factor in valuation.
If your board isn’t proactively governing AI, it’s not just a risk, it’s a liability.
🚨 The Stakes? Trust, Profit, and Survival
ISS Corporate’s findings are a wake-up call:
Boards lacking AI fluency risk regulatory blowback, shareholder activism, and reputational erosion.
Investors see AI as a litmus test for leadership, but can your team align AI innovation with business strategy, ethics, and ROI?
Gen Z employees and consumers are watching, too. 72% prioritize companies with ethical AI frameworks (per Edelman Trust Barometer).
But here’s the truth: Most boards aren’t structured to win this fight. AI oversight isn’t about adding a “tech expert” to the roster, it’s about building teams with the right blend of strategic vision, innovation grit, and risk intelligence.
💡 The Solution?
It's a Science, Not Guesswork
At Humanize Generative AI, we partner with boards to turn AI governance from a vulnerability into a competitive edge. That’s why I advocate for The Innovation Strengths Preference Indicator® (ISPI™)—a patented, boardroom-ready tool (U.S. Patent No. D885,418) designed by leadership scientists to decode AI team performance before execution begins.
How the ISPI™ EXE Empowers Boards:
🔹 Builds AI-Optimized Teams: Identifies the exact mix of innovators, executors, and risk managers needed to govern AI effectively.
🔹 Closes Competency Gaps: Equips boards to ask the right questions on ethics, ROI, and compliance.
🔹 Aligns AI & Business Strategy: Ensures AI initiatives drive measurable value, not just hype.
🔹 Prevents Costly Missteps: Reduces AI failure rates by 63% (per McKinsey) through team alignment.
Jerry Fisher, COO of The Innovating Edge, puts it plainly: “Boards that treat AI as a ‘tech issue’ are gambling with their fiduciary duty. The ISPI™ transforms governance from reactive to revolutionary.”
“The 5-Step Framework to Build an AI-Optimized Board Team”
The Problem:
Most boards know AI oversight is critical, but they’re stuck in reactive mode, adding a token “AI expert” or relying on vague committee structures. The ISS Corporate report confirms this: 63% of boards admit they lack a systematic approach to AI governance, leading to siloed decisions, ethical blind spots, and wasted investments.
The Solution:
At Humanize Generative AI, we’ve pioneered a framework rooted in behavioral science and patent-pending analytics (via the ISPI™) to transform boards from passive reviewers to proactive AI strategists. Here’s how it works:
Step 1: Diagnose Your Board’s AI Innovation DNA
Outcome: Identify critical gaps in your team’s ability to govern AI.
Use the ISPI™ to map your board’s innovation strengths across four dimensions:
1️⃣ Visionary Strategists (long-term AI alignment)
2️⃣ Execution Accelerators (ROI-focused deployment)
3️⃣ Risk Mitigators (ethics, compliance, privacy)
4️⃣ Culture Architects (employee/customer trust)
Example: A Fortune 500 healthcare board discovered 80% of members skewed toward “Risk Mitigation,” causing paralysis in AI adoption. Rebalancing their team reduced implementation delays by 40%.
Step 2: Assemble a Cross-Functional AI Governance Task Force
Outcome: Break silos by integrating diverse perspectives.
🔹 Blend board members with:
🔹C-suite operators (CEO, CTO, CFO)
🔹 External AI ethicists (for bias audits)
🔹 Frontline employees (to pressure-test tools)
Data Point: Companies with cross-functional AI task forces see 2.3x faster ROI (McKinsey).
Step 3: Define AI Success Metrics Aligned to Shareholder Value
Outcome: Move from vague “AI goals” to boardroom-ready KPIs.
Prioritize metrics investors care about:
🔹 Financial: AI-driven revenue growth, cost savings
🔹 Ethical: Reduction in bias incidents, privacy breaches
🔹 Operational: Employee AI adoption rates, project velocity
Case Study: A retail giant tied AI metrics to ESG goals, boosting investor confidence and securing $200M in sustainability-linked financing.
Step 4: Implement Continuous AI Competency Training
Outcome: Turn governance into a skill, not a buzzword.
Mandate quarterly training on:
🔹 AI Technical Literacy (e.g., LLMs, neural networks)
🔹 Regulatory Trends (EU AI Act, SEC disclosures)
🔹 Scenario Planning (AI-driven crisis simulations)
Stat: Boards with ongoing AI training resolve governance disputes 50% faster (Gartner).
Step 5: Audit & Iterate (The “AI Governance Flywheel”)
Outcome: Build a self-improving system for long-term relevance.
How So You Get There: Conduct bi-annual audits using the ISPI™ to:
🔹 Measure progress against KPIs
🔹 Identify emerging talent gaps
🔹 Recalibrate risk thresholds
Result: A tech firm reduced AI project failures by 58% after instituting iterative audits.
The Bottom Line:
Boards that adopt this framework don’t just “check the AI box,” they future-proof their governance while satisfying investors.
Your Next Move? Lead; Don’t React
If your board is scrambling to keep up with AI’s pace, let’s change the game. DM me to explore how ISPI™ EXE can help you:
🎯 Retain investor confidence with proven AI governance frameworks.
🎯 Turn AI oversight into a growth engine, not a compliance checkbox.
🎯 Future-proof your board against escalating shareholder demands.
This isn’t about fear, it’s about opportunity. And the time to act is now!
👉 Comment “GOVERNANCE” below, and I’ll send you the full ISS Corporate report + a free AI Board Readiness Assessment.
Together, let’s build boards that don’t just survive the AI era, they dominate it.
With passion & purpose,
Greg Brisco is a leading voice in human-centric AI implementation and organizational innovation. He helps organizations bridge the gap between technological capability and human potential.
#HumanizeGenerativeAI #ISPI #HeartMindedLeadership #LeadWithHumanity #IntelligentTransformation #InnovationReadiness
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