Latest posts
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Introducing the AI control surface: mapping models, data, risk, and ownership
Most organisations are no longer asking whether they should use AI. They are already using it, often in more places than they realise. Individually, none of these decisions look particularly dangerous. Collectively, they can create a situation where AI is spread across the organisation with no clear ownership, unclear data usage, and inconsistent risk management.
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AI oversight at board level: five questions directors should be asking in 2026
Walk into almost any boardroom today and you will see three very different perspectives on artificial intelligence. One director may not use AI at all and is still trying to understand where it fits into the business landscape. Another may have read about it extensively but has little practical exposure beyond headlines and vendor promises.
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What Technical Due Diligence now expects to see around AI usage
Artificial intelligence is no longer experimental in UK SMEs. It is embedded in sales workflows, underwriting models, forecasting tools, customer communications and product features. In many cases it has become operationally critical without ever becoming formally governed. That shift matters in due diligence. Traditional technical due diligence has focused on platform scalability, cyber posture, code
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The CPTO as AI translator: turning model capability into business decision-making
By the end of 2025, most mid sized organisations are already using AI in some form. Customer support teams are trialling copilots, finance teams are extracting data from documents, and product teams are embedding classification or recommendation into workflows. What has changed is not the presence of AI, but the number of business decisions it
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From awareness to control: governing AI in practice in 2026
In our previous article, 2026: Technology and AI – what’s next for UK SME boards?, we argued that AI has now crossed a threshold. It is no longer an emerging technology that boards can safely delegate downward, nor is it a future concern that can be deferred until “things settle down”. AI is already influencing
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The Ethics of AI at Board Level: Why Risk Is Not Just a Compliance Issue
AI now appears in almost every board pack I see. It is woven into growth plans, cost reduction exercises, investment cases and talent strategies. Yet, in many organisations, the ethical dimension receives far less attention than the commercial one. Too many boards still treat AI risk as if it were simply a matter of compliance,
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The New Technical Debt: Unmaintainable or Misused AI Models
Technical debt used to be easy to spot. You could walk into a development team and see it in the codebase, the lack of tests, or the patchwork of quick fixes that no one wanted to touch. It had a smell to it. You knew that every release took longer, and every new feature came
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Fractional CPTOs and AI strategy: Guiding innovation without overreach
AI is now a permanent topic in the boardroom, but not every board has the right expertise to turn that conversation into a coherent plan. Your company may already be experimenting with AI models or exploring automation, but without a clear strategy and governance framework these activities can quickly pull you away from your intended
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Strategic Blind Spot: When boards underestimate the governance challenges of AI integration
Artificial intelligence now occupies a permanent place on the board agenda. It appears in strategy documents, in investor presentations and in the language of corporate ambition. Yet beneath the enthusiasm lies a quieter risk. Many boards are approaching AI as though it were simply another technology programme to be governed through the same familiar structures.
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Model Drift, Shadow AI, and Spaghetti ML: Why AI Governance Is Already a Problem
The promise of artificial intelligence in business is compelling. Increased efficiency, sharper insights, and products that adapt intelligently to customer needs are now part of the narrative in every boardroom. Yet beneath the enthusiasm lies a more uncomfortable reality. The technology is evolving faster than the structures designed to manage it, and companies are already