Abstract
The article explores the impact of the ongoing progress and adaptation of artificial intelligence on the practice of the corporate governance. It applies three lenses to artificial governance—the business, technology and society lenses—to assess the desirability, feasibility and responsibility of automating board-level decision-making to ensure effective corporate governance. Based on an assessment of the potential and limitations of human and machine learning for effective board-level decision-making, the article proposes five scenarios of artificial governance, i.e. assisted, augmented, amplified, autonomous and autopoietic intelligence, that are likely to shape the governance of organizations today, tomorrow and beyond. It discusses the implications of both the governance of and the governance with artificial intelligence in the three horizons and concludes with an appeal to board members to take an active role in understanding, imagining and shaping the future of artificial governance.
Highlights
Artificial intelligence (AI) is at the top of the agenda for many business leaders (Davenport and Ronanki 2018), it is not a new term—it was originally coined in the 19050s (Russell and Norvig 2016)
As we focus on the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on the board of directors (BoD)’s decision making, we need to identify the key decision types a BoD usually deals with:
In order to better understand the potential contribution of AI on decision making at the board level, it is indispensable to decipher the black box of AI and discuss its different types and evolution (Nilsson 2010) as well as its advantages and shortcomings as compared to human intelligence
Summary
Artificial intelligence (AI) is at the top of the agenda for many business leaders (Davenport and Ronanki 2018), it is not a new term—it was originally coined in the 19050s (Russell and Norvig 2016). This article aims to close this gap by proposing a scenario framework to assess the impact of AI on corporate governance practice. For the purpose of this article, we define corporate governance as “the system by which companies are directed and controlled” We shall focus in this article on the impact of intelligent machines on the activity of decision-making by the entity of the board of directors (BoD) related to the control and direction of the corporation. Given the multifaceted nature of corporate governance, we propose an integrated perspective combining the business, i.e. the definition of the realm of desirability and the technology, i.e. the definition of the realm of feasibility, with the legal and ethical perspectives. In line with the neo-institutional view that ethical considerations eventually evolve into legally binding rules (Scott 1995), we merge the latter two into one perspective, which defines the realm of responsibility
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
