How AI is Transforming Board Governance and Reducing Administrative Burden

From my experience supporting CEOs, executives, directors, boards and executive support teams

Throughout my career supporting CEOs, executive leaders, directors and boards, one consistent challenge has remained "time".

Not time to attend meetings, but time to properly prepare, review, challenge and think.

As governance expectations continue to rise and board packs become larger and more complex, I have seen first-hand how administrative workload increasingly competes with the work that truly adds value at the leadership and board table.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is now providing a genuine opportunity to change this, not by replacing people or professional judgement, but by reducing the administrative load that sits around executive and board operations.

At Vershaw, we work directly with CEOs, executives, directors, boards and executive support teams to integrate AI in a practical, secure and governance-aligned way, based on how leadership and governance actually operate in real organisations.

AI is not about replacing people — it is about removing friction

In my work supporting executive teams and boards, the challenge is rarely a lack of information.

It is an overload of information.

I regularly see directors and executives receive hundreds of pages of reports for a single meeting, often late in the cycle, with limited time to properly analyse what really matters.

From my experience, much of the pressure on leaders and executive assistants comes from manually reading, extracting, reformatting and chasing information, rather than supporting higher-value decision making.

When implemented properly, AI removes much of this friction by assisting with:

• reviewing and summarising board and executive papers

• extracting key decisions, actions and dependencies

• highlighting inconsistencies, risks and emerging issues

• improving the flow and quality of information across leadership teams.

Used well, AI becomes an additional support layer for executives, directors and executive assistants, not a replacement.

Smarter board papers and executive reporting

Having supported countless board and executive meetings, I know how much time is invested in simply getting information into a usable format.

AI can be securely integrated to:

• summarise lengthy reports into clear executive-level briefings

• highlight key themes, performance signals and outliers

• extract decisions and actions for follow-up

• identify where information is unclear, inconsistent or missing

• support more consistent and board-ready reporting.

This allows directors and executives to focus on analysing and challenging information rather than processing it.

Most importantly, AI does not replace the accountability or judgement of directors. It supports them to discharge their duties more effectively.

Identifying risk and strengthening governance conversations

One of the most valuable aspects of my role supporting boards and executives has been helping leadership teams see what is emerging before it becomes a problem.

AI can support this by recognising patterns across:

• operational and performance reporting

• financial commentary and forecasts

• risk registers and compliance updates

• incident, audit and assurance reporting.

This enables earlier identification of:

• emerging risks and control weaknesses

• recurring issues that remain unresolved

• trends that should be escalated to the board

• areas where assurance is informal or fragmented.

In my experience, this strengthens the quality of governance conversations and enables boards to spend more time focused on risk, strategy and accountability.

Better questions — not just faster answers

The most effective directors and executives I have worked with are not those who have all the answers.

They are the ones who consistently ask the right questions.

AI can assist by:

• generating structured challenge questions for board and executive papers

• identifying assumptions that should be tested

• highlighting decisions based on incomplete or unclear information

• surfacing potential downstream impacts.

From my perspective, AI should never replace professional judgement.

Its real value is in supporting stronger challenge and more informed discussion at the board and executive table.

Reducing the everyday administrative burden for leadership and executive support

Having worked closely with executive assistants and governance professionals throughout my career, I understand how much operational and administrative work sits quietly behind every executive and board meeting.

AI can meaningfully reduce this burden across:

Email and communication management

• summarising complex email threads

• prioritising messages and responses

• drafting professional correspondence

• identifying commitments and follow-ups.

Meeting preparation and minutes

• creating structured agendas and briefing notes

• supporting minute-taking and action tracking

• producing consistent and professional records of decisions.

Executive and governance workflow

• automating routine documentation

• supporting task and project tracking

• creating consistent templates and reporting structures.

For executive assistants and governance professionals, AI becomes a genuine productivity partner, enabling time to be redirected to higher-value support.

Supporting small and growing businesses to operate with stronger governance

We also work closely with founders and leadership teams in small and growing organisations.

In many of these businesses, governance, reporting and risk oversight lag behind operational growth not because leaders do not care about governance, but because capacity is limited.

AI allows smaller organisations to introduce structure, discipline and reporting capability without building large administrative teams.

With the right setup, small businesses can:

• produce board-ready reporting

• maintain clearer decision records and audit trails

• improve risk and compliance visibility

• support leadership teams with higher-quality information.

From my experience, this makes a significant difference to both confidence and decision quality.

Governance, privacy and security must come first

In my view, AI in executive and board environments must always be introduced through a governance lens.

Uncontrolled use of public tools, unclear data boundaries and informal practices can expose organisations to privacy, confidentiality and regulatory risk.

At Vershaw, we ensure AI adoption is supported by:

• clear governance and oversight frameworks

• defined data handling and access controls

• practical usage policies for directors, executives and executive support teams

• alignment with privacy, regulatory and risk obligations.

AI should strengthen organisational maturity not undermine it.

How I work with leaders and executive support teams at Vershaw

At Vershaw, we do not simply recommend AI tools.

We work directly with CEOs, executives, directors, boards and executive assistants through confidential one-to-one and small group sessions to show, in practical terms, how AI can be embedded into real executive and governance workflows.

Our focus is on helping leaders and their support teams:

• identify where AI can meaningfully reduce administrative workload

• learn how to safely use AI to review and summarise board and executive papers

• develop practical prompts and workflows for identifying risks and preparing briefings

• apply AI to email management, meeting preparation and minute-taking

• build confidence in using AI as part of everyday leadership and governance practices.

AI is not replacing the EA role — it is elevating it

This is particularly important to me.

Throughout my career working alongside executive assistants and governance professionals, I have seen how central the EA role is to the effectiveness of CEOs, executives and boards.

AI should not be positioned as a replacement for executive assistants.

When implemented properly, AI elevates the EA role by enabling executive assistants and governance professionals to move away from manual, repetitive and reactive tasks and into more strategic, value-adding responsibilities, including:

• supporting higher-quality board and executive reporting

• contributing more actively to governance and risk processes

• strengthening decision support for executives and directors

• improving coordination, follow-through and organisational discipline.

This positions executive assistants as trusted business partners to leaders rather than purely administrative support.

The real benefit: more time for leadership

From my experience, the greatest benefit of AI is not speed.

It is capacity.

By integrating AI into board preparation, executive reporting and everyday administrative workflows, organisations can:

• improve the clarity and quality of information presented to decision-makers

• strengthen governance and risk conversations

• reduce administrative overhead

• increase productivity across leadership and executive support teams.

At Vershaw, we help organisations use AI not as a shortcut but as a strategic enabler for better governance and stronger executive performance.

Ai Adoption with Vershaw

Read more on Board Governance

• The Accidental Company Secretary
• Minutes for Boards and Committees
• Board Papers and Reporting Essentials
• The Essentials of Meetings
• How AI is Tranforming Board Governance

- Alex