Across every sector and industry worldwide, artificial intelligence (AI) is having a profound impact on how businesses operate. In Africa, AI applications had the potential to boost the continent’s economic growth by $2.9 trillion by 2023, with South Africa standing out as a regional leader thanks to robust computing capabilities, infrastructure, and a strong research and development ecosystem.

The transformative impact of AI extends all the way to how businesses are directed and controlled. Already, institutions and professionals from across Africa are advocating for governance practices that prioritise personnel upskilling instead of displacing them. AI boasts significant potential for corporate governance and company secretarial functions, ushering in a new era of productivity, efficiency, and intelligent automation. That said, we are still in the early days of this revolution, and so there remain important questions tied to what AI adoption in this field looks like, how it is ethically and securely adopted, and its potential to support professionals and enhance their workflows.

Ethics, education, and awareness

Boasting the ability to complete tasks and make unilateral decisions, AI and its adoption naturally raises issues related to integrity, fairness, and accountability, key hallmarks of any corporate governance framework. Make no mistake, the ethical challenges and risks associated with AI are universal, applicable to their implementation in corporate governance  use cases just like any other use case in any other industry.

First and foremost is intentional and unintentional bias. Subject to biases based on the data used to train them or predispositions held by its developers, AI can pose a risk to individuals or groups in the form of prejudices, injustices, and inequalities. AI can also be outright misused or abused, as we have seen reported many times now in the media, ranging from company chatbots sharing erroneous information with customers to lawyers allegedly using AI to source fictitious legal citations. This can also lead to serious incidents related to data security and privacy, and ultimately help to perpetuate myths and fears surrounding the technology.

Ethics and due diligence should therefore sit at the heart of any AI implementation in corporate governance  processes. Professionals should promote organisational awareness and buy-in surrounding AI, and they can achieve that by:

  • Defining what AI means to the organisation and its operations.
  • Coupling awareness initiatives to the organisation’s mission and values.
  • Involving trusted and influential members across departments to promote education and aid adoption.
  • Fine-tuning stakeholder communications to ensure transparency and accountability.

Ethics will remain critical as more and more companies embrace AI and associated technologies. For those who embrace it for governance functions, the key to success will be how organisations balance AI with human intelligence and input. Once the balance is struck, they will start to create value and enshrine a culture and ways of working that can become the gold standard across companies.

AI and governance in action

AI is evolving at such a rapid pace that it’s difficult to envision its final form in the field of corporate governance. The best approach is one step at a time, considering individual implementations and scrutinising how the technology adds value to traditional workplace and industry functions.

Let’s consider the role of a company secretary. In accordance with Section 88 of the Companies Act of 2008, company secretaries may have the requisite knowledge of, or experience with, laws relevant to the role. Rather than viewing the technology as a threat to the role, company secretaries and governance professionals should view it as an opportunity to enhance their knowledge bases and fiduciary controls to the benefit of their organisation.

In its most basic implementation, AI has the potential to reduce the manual workload of company secretaries by automating lower-level functions of the position, including:

  • Lodging complaints with regulatory bodies such as the Companies and Intellectual Property Commission (CIPC).
  • Filing and distributing documents and meeting minutes among stakeholders.
  • Drafting and communicating meeting agendas.
  • Distributing board packs to members.
  • Drafting and reviewing mandatory and repetitive clauses in contracts and company policies.
  • Conducting board evaluations and assisting in the induction of new directors.

All of these tasks and others essentially free up company secretaries to focus on more critical and human-reliant tasks and assignments. At the same time, it enables them to take a proactive and up-skilling stance in terms of adopting AI, guiding and training juniors and other team members on the nuances of using tools and how to refine their output to maximise quality while meeting ethical standards.

And this is just one role. Continued adoption will position companies as proactive and progressive at the same time the business landscape transforms. AI marks a turning point in businesses’ relationship with technology.

Issued by the Chartered Governance Institute of Southern Africa