From my experience supporting CEOs, executives, directors, boards and executive support teams
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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:
summarising complex email threads
prioritising messages and responses
drafting professional correspondence
identifying commitments and follow-ups.
creating structured agendas and briefing notes
supporting minute-taking and action tracking
producing consistent and professional records of decisions.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
- Alex