University of London Worldwide-Global MBA-Guest Speaker Series
Organized by
Prof. Dimitrios N. Koufopoulos BSc, MBA, PhD, FCMI, FIC, AIIA, CMBE, FRSA
Director of the Online Global MBA Programmes, University of London
Visiting Professor, School of Law, Center for Commercial and Law Studies, Queen Mary University
Fellow for the Center for Distance Education (CDE)
Honorary Research Fellow, School of Business, Economics and Informatics, Birkbeck, Univ of London
Founder of the Hellenic Observatory of Corporate Governance
presents
Alasdair Mangham-Director -Azeus Convene Ltd.
discussing
“So, Elon, Sam and Mark have joined the Board” AI inside the Portals: Benefits, Risks and How to Stay in Control.
Boards have long relied on technology to automate their processes — from couriered paper packs to secure board portals and digital signatures. But with the arrival of AI inside these systems, the boardroom is entering uncharted territory. AI tools now summarise papers, highlight risks, and draft minutes, shifting the role of technology from mechanical automation to active participation in information synthesis. This raise pressing questions:
Can we assume AI outputs are neutral, or do the politics of how AI systems are built shape board decision-making in unseen ways? Just as past IT choices reflected hidden debates between open source and proprietary systems, today’s GPTs carry the philosophies of their creators — whether from OpenAI, Anthropic, Grok, or Meta.
For companies, the challenge is to harness AI’s efficiencies while safeguarding fiduciary duty and governance integrity. This means understanding the politics behind the tools, deciding whether to pursue neutrality through pluralism or to make an explicit alignment, and setting procurement guardrails to ensure security, transparency, and accountability.
Ultimately, as boards prepare for a future where AI could evolve toward artificial general intelligence, the central question becomes: how do directors retain judgement and responsibility while welcoming AI as a non-voting assistant in the boardroom?
