**Boards’ AI Oversight Raises Validation Questions**
When a significant number of boards across industries have adopted AI to govern AI, it highlights the importance of independent validation in regulated sectors, such as healthcare, insurance, and financial services in Canada and the UK.
The development is straightforward: 35% of boards now incorporate AI into their oversight activities. This shift might initially seem positive for organisations using or considering artificial intelligence. However, this decision raises concerns about capability risk, governance risk, and liability risk for those investing in AI solutions.
**What could go wrong?**
Organisations that rely solely on a vendor’s claims may end up with technology that does not meet their operational needs. In the case of healthcare, such an unexamined solution can directly impact patient care or treatment outcomes. Moreover, boards and regulatory bodies will scrutinise the organisation for its decision-making process, leaving it vulnerable to governance risk if AI is not properly integrated into the oversight framework. Finally, liability concerns arise when an organisation cannot demonstrate transparency in how AI systems operate and generate results.
**The action**
To mitigate these risks, prudent organisations should:
1. Review their current AI solutions to ensure they meet operational needs.
2. Develop a comprehensive governance framework for AI deployment.
3. Perform thorough due diligence on AI vendors and solutions.
Struggling to implement this strategy? Organisations may face difficulties in conducting independent evaluations due to vendor information asymmetry and internal teams’ biases towards the decision.
**Independent validation with Straven & Co**
At Straven & Co, we understand that organisations need expert assistance when evaluating AI solutions. We provide an independent assessment of a proposed solution against an organisation’s real operations, its people, governance obligations, legal exposure, and vendor claims. Our verdict is plain: proceed, proceed with conditions, or do not.
This approach is essential because Straven & Co has no product to sell and earns nothing by recommending more AI solutions. As a result, our judgment can be trusted as we deliver an unbiased assessment of the organisation’s exposure.
**Straven & Co examines AI decisions before they are acted on: stravenandco.com**
Note that this article was written based on publicly available data and research.