Troy Latter | How I contribute at board level
My contribution as a director is not to tell management which technology to buy. It is to help the board understand the decision, challenge assumptions, connect investment to outcomes and ensure accountability for the consequences.
An organisation has invested heavily in cloud, AI, data and automation. The programme is reported as green, but productivity, customer outcomes and financial benefits are not appearing. I would ask what was actually bought, who is using it, what changed, what benefits were realised, where adoption is failing and what should stop. The objective is to connect the CIO or CTO, CFO and business owners around evidence rather than delivery theatre.
AI and automation may affect employees, customers and the operating model. The board should ask not only what AI can automate, but what people should now be able to do that they could not do before. That requires attention to augmentation, roles, skills, change, customer experience, governance, accountability and economics, while avoiding the automation of broken or unnecessary processes.
A platform, data capability or AI infrastructure investment may create new products, markets, partnerships or intellectual property beyond the original business case. I would ask whether the organisation is viewing the investment only as IT, while maintaining discipline about what to build, buy, partner, fund or stop.
Why are we investing? What outcome are we expecting? Who should benefit? How will we know whether it is working? What risks are we creating? What has actually changed? What should we do differently? What additional strategic value could the investment unlock?