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AI Briefing for the Board

Brief your board on AI in ten slides.

Answer a short guided form. Get a ten-slide outline with speaker notes, and the questions directors will ask with answers already drafted. Weak answers are flagged so you fix them before the meeting, not during it.

  • About 8 minutes
  • 10 slides, 8 questions
  • Private to your browser
Sample data A fictional distributor is filled in so you can see a finished briefing. Replace it with your own.
Step 1 of 5Company context
Where AI is used today
Step 2 of 5The plan and the ask

One to three priority initiatives. Give each one a board metric and a single owner.

Why only three, and why one owner each
Boards fund outcomes, not programs. Three priorities fit in a director's head; ten read as a wish list. One named owner per initiative tells the board exactly who to ask next quarter. Two owners usually means none.
Decisions you need from the board
Why decide the decisions first
A briefing without an ask becomes a technology tour, and directors fill the silence with questions about models. Name the decision on slide 1 and again on slide 9. Everything between is the case for it.
Step 3 of 5Risks and controls
Top risks you see
Controls already in place

Why the board cares about oversight
Directors carry accountability for decisions an agent makes on the company's behalf. Showing where a person stays in the loop, and that an audit trail exists, answers the question they are really asking: if this goes wrong, will we know, and who will act?
Step 4 of 5Readiness self-score

A quick 1 to 5 per dimension. For a fuller, evidence-based score, run the AI Readiness Assessment and bring the result.

Step 5 of 5Running cost (optional)

Not sure? The AI Budget Planner estimates it from the work you plan to run. Directors ask about running cost almost every time, separately from the one-off investment.

Your deck outline

Ten slides, built from your answers

Each slide has a title, three bullets and speaker notes. Highlighted text is a gap to fill. Copy the outline into your deck template.

What this means

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    Questions directors will ask

    Eight questions, answers drafted

    Each answer is written from your inputs. A weak flag means an input is missing; fix it above and the answer updates.

      Myth

      The board needs to understand how AI works before it can approve it.

      Reality

      The board needs to understand what it is deciding, what could go wrong and who is accountable. Explain the model only if asked. Explain the oversight every time.

      Field note

      In our experience, the briefings that land run nine slides and spend a third of the time on the decisions slide. Send the outline a week ahead, so directors arrive with questions rather than first reactions, and keep a person in the loop on every decision with financial, legal or customer impact.

      Field guide

      Briefing a board on AI

      What directors need from you, and what they do not.

      .01

      Lead with decisions, not technology

      Directors are there to decide, not to learn a new field in twenty minutes. Put the ask on the first slide and the last. Every slide in between should make the case for it or show how the risk is managed. Technology belongs in the appendix.

      Rule of thumbIf a slide does not support a decision on slide 9, move it to the appendix.

      .02

      Talk about risk and oversight plainly

      Name the risks before a director does, in business terms: what could happen, how you would know, and who acts. Then show the controls: where a person approves, how actions are logged, and where spending stops. A team that names its own risks earns more trust than one that minimizes them.

      Rule of thumbOne risk, one control, one owner. Keep a person in the loop on key decisions and cap automation around 80%.

      .03

      Report metrics the board already reads

      Directors already track cycle time, cost per transaction, working capital and error rates. Report AI progress in those terms, with a baseline and a target, every quarter. Model accuracy scores mean little at board level until they are translated into a business result.

      Rule of thumbSame metrics, same page, every quarter. Trend beats snapshot.

      Want a tool built for your team?

      We build custom assessments, skills and internal apps as part of our engagements. Tell us what you need.

      Book a discovery call leron@baxtermountain.ai