Ctrl + Alt + Govern

Well, it’s been a while! Time got away from me over the festive period BUT it did give me a lot of time for reflection – and I’ve been reflecting on AI.

In the last post, I talked about the value of solid administrative skills in supporting and enabling governance within organisations, however it would be remiss of me to not raise the impact of AI on executing administrative roles, particularly within the context of governance.

Let’s be clear: I personally believe that AI will never be able to replace skilled administrative staff, it simply cannot replicate the judgement, contextual awareness and relational work that good administration brings. Also, have you ever seen AI try and transcribe a Welsh accent? I have – it’s not great. That said, it would be naïve to ignore that many organisations are reviewing administrative roles to factor in the efficiencies promised by AI tools.

We’ve seen this pattern before. In the 1990s, the rise of computers and digital tools prompted similar predictions and restructures, yet administrative work didn’t disappear; it adapted, professionalised and became even more central to how organisations functioned. The problem isn’t that AI will impact administrative jobs – it will, however, as with the digitisation in the 1990s, AI will change the shape of administrative work, not the need for administrative capability. In this way, AI is being deployed into administrative landscapes that are already under-skilled, under-resourced, and over-stretched – which makes skilled administrative professionals more important, not less.

Within the context of supporting governance, AI definitely has the potential to make meaningful difference. Many organisations are suffering governance fatigue, with too many boards and subgroups, overlapping reporting cycles, and an ever-growing volume of papers that obscure rather than support effective oversight. Combining this governance fatigue with a lack of administrative capacity to appropriately service the boards in the way that is needed. This is where AI can support – by helping streamline processes, condense information, and reduce administrative burden, enabling administrative staff to focus on judgement, coordination and sense-making rather than volume management.

All of this to say: AI should not be used to bolster or sustain overly dense governance structures. It should be used to support in challenging them, helping organisations to reduce governance fatigue rather than administer it more efficiently. Using AI simply to administer complex governance structures risks entrenching the very problems organisations are trying to solve.

One of the challenges in complex governance isn’t a lack of information, but fragmentation. AI can be used to consolidate papers across multiple boards and subgroups; surface common themes, risks, or decisions; identify duplication or misalignment between committees; distinguish between items for decision, assurance, escalation or noting…the possibilities are endless.

BUT

We need to understand the limitations of AI within this context too. AI misses the nuance of the conversation, tone, hesitation, and power dynamics; its going to miss actions which are agreed within the margins of the meeting; and AI misses the power dynamics within a room and the difference between agreement and acquiescence. We cannot push forward with imbedding AI in practice when we have a workforce who does not fully understand its strengths and limitations as a tool.

When routine tasks move to AI, people have more bandwidth. Fundamentally AI is a tool, and like any tool, its impact depends on how its used. AI should support and strengthen administrative roles, not be seen as a replacement for them. Without a clear understanding of its limitations, and without investment in the people and skills needed to work alongside it, AI risks becoming another layer of complexity rather than a source of clarity.