Artificial intelligence must be used with care

"When AI goes into the machine learning space, it opens up a range of issues such as biases and privacy," she says. "Boards have to be switched on to this and be able to ask the right questions." According to Williams, a significant proportion of the challenges caused by AI usage within companies comes from the fact that the technology is far from transparent. "Even the people who build it don't really know why it does what it does," she says. If it is successful in understanding AI, developing strategies for it, and integrating it into mainstream business strategy, the payoff is huge." Asked to nominate other technology-related issues occupying the minds board members, panel members pointed to a range including security and the ability to withstand cyber attacks. "Cyber security is really at the top of the list," says David Attenborough, managing director and chief executive at betting company Tabcorp. "This is because any company is under permanent attack from different directions and you need to be protecting your customers, your networks and your employees from those attacks." "The other major issue that keeps me awake at night is the resilience of networks because we have multiple systems supporting a massive retail network and a big digital network.