CEOs and boards of directors disagree on how quickly their companies should integrate AI, according to a new study from BCG.
Split Decision: The BCG CEOs and Boards Survey, released Monday, surveyed 625 business leaders around the world. Of the 351 CEOs and 274 directors of large companies surveyed, 44% were based in the United States.
Our findings show that there is a divide at the top of organizations over the pace of AI transformation. We found that boards tend to prefer an aggressive approach to AI adoption, while CEOs tend to prefer a slower rollout.
Specifically, 61% of CEOs surveyed felt their boards were “rushing AI transformation,” with 54% agreeing and 7% strongly agreeing with this statement. In contrast, 21% of CEOs disagreed or strongly disagreed, and 18% had a neutral opinion.
CEOs said they wanted the board to take a more “cautious” and “deliberative” approach. Meanwhile, boards are asking executives to become “more proactive” and pursue more AI opportunities across their organizations, the survey found.
BCG suggested that this gap may be driven in part by confidence in boards’ understanding of AI. Among board members with low confidence in their AI knowledge, 40% said their organization was moving too slowly in adopting AI, compared to 20% who said they were satisfied with the current pace.
The consultancy said this could indicate that “uncertainty is leading to a heightened sense of urgency.”
More than half of CEOs surveyed said boards need to better understand the gap between “AI headlines” and reality.
This tension arises as companies increasingly incorporate AI into their workflows. Big Tech and Wall Street companies are setting internal goals and revamping performance evaluations to accelerate the adoption of AI.
Meta set a goal for the engineer. Google managers can mandate the use of Assistant and AI agents. JPMorgan Chase tracks AI usage through internal dashboards.
Amazon is also under increasing pressure to introduce AI. Business Insider’s chief technology correspondent Eugene Kim reported that the tech giant’s retail division is now monitoring how many engineers are using AI each month and how often those tools are incorporated into their daily workflows.
For many large companies, the use of AI is no longer a topic of discussion. However, the question is how quickly to implement it.