Boards as competitive advantage.

Most boards are asking the AI question. Few can validate the answer. Board AI Institute equips directors, chairs, and CEOs to govern AI as a source of advantage, not a risk to be managed after the fact.

  • #2 on SSRN Board AI governance paper
  • Featured Columbia Law and Egon Zehnder
  • Keynote Institute of Directors Global
  • 3,000+ INSEAD AI community

An executive advisory practice founded by Robert Maciejko. Co-author of the #2 most-downloaded board AI governance paper on SSRN.

Active across financial services, healthcare, technology, energy, consumer, and private equity.

The flagship board session

AI Governance: Power Steering, Not a Brake

A half-day, in-room working session that gives a board the STAR governance roadmap and the questions every director should be asking. Not an AI tutorial. A catalytic intervention, not a course. Delivered by the co-author of the #2 most-downloaded board AI governance paper on SSRN.

Who it is for

Full boards, governance and risk committees, and chairs preparing their board for an AI-shaped era.

What the session covers

  • The two failure modes, and which one your board is exposed to
  • STAR applied live to your board's own AI initiatives: Shareholder Value Thesis, Threat Parity, Ability, Risk Budget
  • The governance architecture: how to distribute AI oversight across your existing committees without building a new one
  • AI as a leadership and CEO-succession test

What your board leaves with

The STAR discipline applied to your own initiatives. A board action sheet. Three questions for your next meeting. A shared vocabulary the whole board can use. The roadmap, not a textbook.

Request this session Engagement by inquiry.
The S.T.A.R. Framework exhibit

The STAR framework: Shareholder Value Thesis, Threat Parity, Ability, Risk Budget. The operating discipline behind every Power Steering session.

The work behind the practice

#2 on SSRN

Power Steering, Not a Brake, co-authored with IESE Business School and Egon Zehnder, ranks among the most-downloaded board AI governance papers ever published.

Read the paper on SSRN →

Built on operator experience

McKinsey, BCG, Oliver Wyman. INSEAD MBA, Princeton BSE. NACD Certified Director. Co-founder of the INSEAD AI community, 3,000+ senior executives.

Mid-year statement

What I'd tell a board about AI right now.

A sample of how I brief directors: plain, current, grounded in what actually changed this week.

Watch the full statement + read the summary →

Event feedback from Opal Group
Event feedback

Fast, sharp, and immediately actionable speaking creates the right follow-on conversation with boards and leadership teams.

Session Feedback

"Bloody brilliant."

Ex-CEO

"Fantastic. Great content and discussions."

Board Member

"Amazing! Thank you, Robert!"

Private Equity Partner

"Thank you for a fabulous session."

VC Partner

"Excellent presentation. Thank you for the resources too."

Ex-COO

"So valuable and you are a great presenter."

Americas Lead

"Thank you for the concrete examples, Robert."

Global Head, Major Business Line

"Thank you, this was brilliant!"

Tech CTO

"Amazingly useful."

Startup Co-Founder

Most boards believe they are governing AI

They have the policy, the committee, the quarterly slide. Often the harder question, whether any of it changes a decision, has not been asked.

Two failure modes show up again and again, often in the same company. The board that falls behind, approves without scrutiny, and lets AI-native competitors take the upside. And the board that overcorrects, pushes deployment before the controls and data are ready, and draws the scrutiny and shadow AI that follow.

The polite term is a governance gap. The honest one is flying blind. Boards are the last line of defense, and in the US there is no regulation coming to do the job for them.

Governance fails in two directions exhibit

Two failure modes from the STAR framework paper. Most organizations are exposed to both, often in the same company.

Start with where your board stands

The Board AI Readiness Check is a twelve-question diagnostic scored against the four STAR dimensions. Anonymous, free, no email required. In five minutes you will see where your board is steering and where it is flying blind.

Take the Readiness Check
Robert Maciejko portrait

Founder, Board AI Institute

Robert Maciejko

Robert advises boards, chairs, and CEOs on governing AI. He is the founder of Board AI Institute, co-author of Power Steering, Not a Brake, and co-founder of the INSEAD AI community of 3,000+ senior executives across 190 countries.

He built two businesses from zero to market leadership, owning the P&L, and has held senior strategy roles at McKinsey, and serves on and advises boards across consumer, financial services, technology, energy, and media. INSEAD MBA, Princeton BSE, NACD Certified Director.

He writes AI News You Missed, a weekly read followed by senior executives worldwide.

Read the full bio →

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A weekly briefing on what actually matters in AI, read by directors and executives worldwide. 2,400+ subscribers.

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Zero to Boardroom in 60 Minutes

A masterclass on building board-level AI fluency.

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Selected writing

From the work.

Featured Article, July 2026

AI's Boardroom Blind Spot

Of the fifteen largest US companies, exactly one names AI as a board skill. Of the five largest equity stewards, only one asks for it. AI has saturated the conversation. It has barely entered the contract.

Read the article →

Featured Article, June 2026

The Board's AI Opportunity

Only 8% of directors rate themselves strong on AI. For fifty years, staying deeply informed cost too much and strategy changed slowly enough. AI flipped both at once. The lines have crossed.

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Weekly Newsletter, Latest Issue #111

AI News You Missed #111

Moonshot's Kimi K3 rattles the tape at a third the price. Xi launches a Shanghai-headquartered AI cooperation body with 29 nations. Thinking Machines open-sources Inkling. TSMC and ASML print records while chip stocks fall. Sixteen Nobel laureates urge governments to act now.

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Is your board steering, or flying blind?