CEOs believe AI can develop better business plans than board members

A huge majority of CEOs believe AI has advanced far enough that it can begin to take over some of the responsibilities performed by fellow members of the C-suite and the board of directors.

A full 94% of CEOs surveyed for AI platform provider Dataiku believe an AI agent could provide similar or better advice on business decisions than a human board member. Meanwhile, 89% believe AI can develop a better strategic plan than a member of their executive leadership team.

AI experts seem to be split on the survey findings, with some saying the CEOs give AI too much credit, at least in the short term. Others say the technology has made huge leaps in recent months, leading to the ability to create detailed business plans by using internal and external data.

The CEOs’ confidence in AI is striking, although there may be an explanation, says Florian Douetteau, Dataiku’s CEO and co-founder. At many organizations, it’s likely that at least one member of the executive team isn’t a strong strategic planner, he says, thus giving AI the edge in at least one case.

In addition, many CEOs receive a lot of information through bullet-point lists, he adds, and some generative AIs excel at presenting data in easy-to-digest nuggets, even if the output may contain no new insights.

Still, the sweet spot for most AI tools — for the moment — lies in assisting employees and executives, not in replacing them, Douetteau says.

A lack of insight

AI’s ability to augment employees and executives can extend to business plans, but current models can’t think creatively and generate new insights, adds Ahsan Shah, SVP of AI and analytics at Billtrust, a billing software provider.

“AI is great at analyzing data and spotting patterns, but real strategic planning needs an understanding of company culture, relationships, market behavior, and competition that AI doesn’t have yet,” he says. “AI doesn’t know your exact business problem.”

Human leadership is still essential because of continuously changing market conditions and because AI output often needs to be fine-tuned, Shah adds. Smart companies “will blend AI’s analytical capabilities with human judgment, creativity, and emotional intelligence — rethinking how work gets done with humans and machines each playing to their strengths,” he says.

AI tools will need extensive training to analyze internal data, adds Keith Bigelow, chief product officer at HR software maker Visier. AI agents can process vast amounts of data and automate repetitive and mundane tasks, he says, but may struggle with more complex assignments.

“Executives should assume that AI agents are like new employees and require material training and coaching in order to bring reliable and high-quality outcomes,” Bigelow says. “An off-the-shelf [agent] would lack the context of the company’s vision, culture, resources, and financial motivations.”

AI advancements

But generative and large language model (LLM) AIs have come a long way in the past six months, says Steve Hall, chief AI officer at technology research and advisory firm ISG. These powerful AIs now excel at distilling and analyzing large amounts of external and internal data, an important step in creating strategic plans, he adds.

“I’ve been creating strategies for a lot of years, and often, the toughest thing to do is to figure out the signal-to-noise ratio,” he says. “You’ve got to take so many signals from the external market, internal dynamics, and customer dynamics, all of which help you form your overall strategy. AI has a tremendous impact in the ability to do it.”

Hall doesn’t see AI replacing executives or board members in the next few years, but he believes it can now take over much of the heavy lifting in strategic planning.

“It allows you to test different ideas and hypothesize different ideas with all of this data,” he says. “When you pull it into your own large language models, or even just integrate it into your own GPT, where you can start linking with your internal data, all of a sudden you can really do what-if analysis that even the best of the consultants and the best of the board members can’t necessarily track.”

Bullish themselves on AI agents, CIOs and other company leaders should, however, insist on keeping a human in the loop, Hall adds. “I don’t think we’ll get to a point where AI will go execute the transaction and do the M&A,” he says. “You’re going to have things that come back that are going to be head scratchers, and you’re like, ‘Maybe I should have thought about that; tell me more.’”

Invading board meetings

While Billtrust’s Shah doesn’t believe AI is ready to replace board members or executives, the technology will become part of many board meetings in the near future, he predicts. There will be AIs listening as board members discuss business issues, and the AI will be able to instantly interject with relevant information, such as the previous quarter’s sales figures.

For now, CEOs and other leaders need to invest as much in change management and reskilling employees as in AI technology, Shah recommends. “This is the only way to fully harness AI’s potential while ensuring that human leadership remains at the core of strategic decision-making,” he adds.

Beyond the confidence in AI’s ability to create business plans, Dataiku’s survey and accompanying report, “Global AI Confessions Report: CEO Edition,” shows CEOs thinking about how to use AI and worried about falling behind. Nearly three-quarters of CEOs surveyed are worried about losing their job within the next two years if they don’t deliver measurable AI results.

“Whatever our position, we need to be cognizant of the fact that if we don’t use AI in order to elevate our work, our ability to think, our ability to communicate ideas, we might be in competition with other people who would be better at it,” says Dataiku’s Douetteau, a CEO. “It’s a call to action for everyone.”