Robots at the top table?

Institute of Directors CEO Kirsten Patterson indicates'robots' will soon be part of, if not are already part of, boardrooms in New Zealand. "We might not see a robo adviser sitting on a chair, but what we will see is greater reliance on artificial intelligence led data and analysis," explains Patterson, during the launch of the IoD 2017 Directors' Fees Report. There are lots of opportunities for directors who have the ability to aggregate and distil trends, adds Una Diver, director at EY, which partnered with IoD on the report. Diver says a CIO moving to the professional director space would be thinking, 'How can I demonstrate my skills around data, artificial intelligence and cyber that will position me to be attractive to my governance career?' "I don't think two years ago many people talked about cyber risk in the same way as they are talking about it now," says Diver. "So if we look ahead at the trend in directorships, it will be around thinking about when boards are considering their skill matrixes. How are we covered for digital, particularly about cybersecurity?" "The big thing directors need to be is to be able to comfortably lead through change and uncertainty, adds Patterson. "More and more they are being asked to deal with a level of regulatory and liability responsibility in very detailed level.