AI: Looking for ROI, moving toward agency
Four areas for board focus as companies increase their deployment of artificial intelligence and AI agents.
Artificial intelligence (AI) has continued to capture the attention and imagination of companies, policymakers, and society at a remarkable pace. At the 2025 AI Summit in Paris, technology leaders proclaimed that “AI will be the most profound shift of our lifetimes” and that AI will lead to the “largest change to the global labor market in human history.” The opportunities and implications, as speculated by Anthropic’s CEO, are profound: “Cancer is cured, the economy grows at 10 percent a year, the [federal] budget is balanced—and 20 percent of people don’t have jobs.”1
For many companies and their boards, the opportunities and challenges are stacking up, and the technology’s advance is waiting for no one.
As AI reshapes the landscape and becomes ever more critical to a company’s strategy and competitive position, a top priority for boards today is to understand where this is all headed—the state of AI, the technology’s pace and direction, and where management and the board should be focusing their attention to capitalize on AI’s value-creation opportunities.
Based on our recent surveys and conversations with directors, AI experts, and business leaders, we offer insights and observations on the AI landscape, where many companies are on their AI journey, and where they are likely to go in the near and long term as the technology continues to evolve.
In addition, as companies increase their deployment of AI and agents, we emphasize four critical areas of board focus:
- Full implementation of GenAI
- Deployment of AI agents
- Return on investment and the bottom line
- The people aspect
1 Jim VandeHei and Mike Allen, “Behind the curtain,” Axios, May 28, 2025.
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