The AI Literacy Gap

At present, many boardrooms are experiencing tension over AI, with it often being a top concern of theirs. Nevertheless, once the discussions commence, the experience in those meetings can seem awkward, with only a couple of people contributing greatly, while many remain cautious and sometimes silent.

This tension is referred to as the Board of Directors’ AI Literacy Gap; and it represents more than just the Board of Directors’ lack of technical understanding of AI. It also reflects their lack of confidence in their ability to ask the right questions.

You don’t necessarily have to understand how AI is trained in order to ask good questions, but you do need a general understanding of the technology so that you can challenge assumptions. If not, decisions will be deferred to a select few, and this results in significant risk for the company.

I recall one such example during a strategy meeting when an executive inquired, “Can we simply use AI for our customer service to save money?” This was an honest inquiry, but it really underestimated the complexity of the discussion around how to improve the customer experience, build trust, and manage edge cases, all of which do not simply vanish after deploying a model.

Furthermore, there is a perception that AI is a single entity; it is not. There are various toolsets for various use cases and thus there are varyingly different capabilities, limitations and costs associated with each. So not having an understanding of the subtleties creates the potential for both over and under-investment in an organization.

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