If your top priority is growth, then your top priority is AI
(But apparently most board directors can't see that)
Boards love to talk about growth. It’s the top priority for 76% of directors asked in the FTI Consulting What Directors Think Survey 2025, which polled 200+ directors of major U.S. companies. But while pursuing growth is a top priority for over three quarters of respondents, adopting / improving understanding of AI was sixth on the list at only 27%.
This makes no sense.
Because with very few exceptions, AI has the potential to be the biggest driver of your growth strategy.
Yet, 20% of businesses surveyed have taken no action on AI. The rest are mostly focused on cost-cutting and productivity gains, rather than AI’s real value: innovation and expansion. Only 33% of directors surveyed see AI as an opportunity for product and service innovations. Boards are chasing growth while ignoring the biggest tool for achieving it
Of course, AI can optimise operations, automate tasks, and make existing processes faster. But that’s not the big opportunity - it’s just the low-hanging fruit. The real advantage comes from:
Developing entirely new products and services faster
Creating AI-powered offerings
Entering new markets with better localisation
Accelerating R&D
I know, it’s hard to visualise where AI could take you when you have no frame of reference.
But you will never know what AI can enable for your company until you get started trying to figure out what AI can enable for your company.
Let’s look at the numbers from the survey:
Only 12% of boards plan to mandate or recommend AI training for directors
Only 6% plan to recruit board members with AI expertise
At the same time, leadership teams admit that their biggest challenge with AI is a lack of internal capabilities. So here’s the cycle they’re stuck in:
The leadership team doesn’t understand AI.
Because they don’t have the understanding, to them, AI is just about efficiency.
Because they think AI is an efficiency driver, they don’t prioritise it for growth.
Because they don’t prioritise it for growth, they don’t see the need to upskill or bring in AI expertise.
Because they don’t upskill, the leadership team continues to not understand AI.
And so the blind spot remains.
This isn’t a slow-moving trend. AI isn’t going to wait. Kodak and Blockbuster had years to react to disruption. You don’t.
If your board doesn’t have AI expertise, get some. If your leadership team doesn’t understand AI, train them. Because any other action is simply irresponsible.
Good one!