The Board's Role in Managing Emerging AI Risks

McKinsey and NACD's joint panel surfaces a critical decision-quality gap: organizations are scaling generative AI quickly, but risk and governance models are not keeping pace — creating a dangerous space between experimentation and control. Directors are urged to shift from reactive heat-map reporting to forward-looking scenario planning of "good, better, and best" AI risk options, and to demand coherent narratives from management rather than more dashboards. For SEA boards, the practical takeaway is to institute AI risk scenario reviews with explicit escalation triggers before the next strategic planning cycle.