Company secretaries can use AI to create capacity in their role, says expert

Gary Gray of Pinsent Masons, a Fellow of the Chartered Governance Institute and adviser on corporate governance and company secretarial matters, said the results of a recent survey highlight the opportunities company secretaries – and boards more generally – have to use AI within governance processes.

Board Intelligence surveyed more than 400 non-executive directors, chief executives and chief financial officers from companies with over £50 million in turnover across the UK, US, Nordics, and Middle East. The survey identified the widespread debate board members are having about which decisions should remain human-led versus AI-led, as well as broad concerns that “overly rigid or inconsistent decision-making frameworks” are contributing to delayed, rushed, or poor decision-making.

According to the survey, decision-making frameworks or processes (34%), clarity of roles and responsibilities between boards, executives and committees (32%), and the quality of information provided to the board (29%) were cited as the biggest obstacles to faster, more effective decision-making in the boardroom. However, just 8% of respondents believe boards will need to be completely reimagined to account for AI: 40% believe there will be either no meaningful change (8%) or only minor adjustments (32%) to how boards themselves operate over the next five years.

Gray said the survey results suggest the potential of AI to support board-level activities and good corporate governance is not fully recognised.

“If AI is used well, company secretaries should have more time to focus on improving governance, supporting better board decision-making, managing risk and ensuring the right information reaches directors at the right time,” Gray said.

“There are important governance tasks that are the responsibility of a company secretary to perform or enable, but some are highly process driven. If they can use AI effectively to streamline those tasks, they should have more time to focus on areas where their judgement and experience add the most value, such as projects classed as important but deferred because of day-to-day pressures.”

Gray said company secretaries should start by considering which of their tasks are most resource-intensive and process-driven, to identify opportunities for AI to create capacity.

One practical example might be to use AI to support with meeting agenda planning, to ensure adequate time is allocated to discussion of priority business items, Gray said. AI can also help company secretaries make board packs more useful by distilling lengthy papers into clear summaries focused on the important points for directors to digest, he added.

Company secretaries might also use AI to produce draft minutes of board meetings, Gray said, highlighting how this can enable what was discussed and decided as well as action points to be captured within seconds. However, he said care still needs to be taken to cross-check what is produced for accuracy before minutes are circulated or shared with regulators.

According to Gray, AI can also support company secretaries with statutory filings and reporting.

“AI can help companies make annual reports more accessible by producing summaries that draw out key themes and provide some narrative, whether around strategy, performance and risk or the fulfilment of directors’ duties, or on non-financial disclosures that are being increasingly mandated, such as around ESG and diversity data,” Gray said. “A risk, though, is that by leaning on AI-generated content, company secretaries import information of a generic nature into those reports that may not fully or accurately reflect risks or issues the business faces in its specific operations. This highlights the need for human oversight of AI output and for company secretaries to apply their own professional judgement.”

Gray said company secretaries will get the most from AI tools if they embrace opportunities to build their own AI literacy.

“Company secretaries do not need to become technologists, but they do need to understand what tools are available to them and how to use them in a responsible way,” Gray said. “One skill that is particularly worthwhile developing is that of prompting – by asking the right questions and setting the AI the right instructions, company secretaries stand to maximise the benefits they can obtain from use of the technology.”