As AI-powered operations evolve, so too must corporate governance.
This is a big concern for Ken Washington, i-GENTIC's chairman of the board. The Palo Alto, California-based company focuses on agent-based governance across data, privacy, cybersecurity, and AI-assisted operations.
Mr. Washington previously led consumer robotics at Amazon, oversaw research and advanced engineering programs at Ford, and most recently served as senior vice president and chief technology officer at Medtronic, the world's largest publicly traded medical technology company.
He spoke to CFO Leadership about the interplay between technology and governance, a board's perspective on the tools an organization chooses, and why companies sometimes cling to “expensive and imperfect things.”
What are the most pressing topics that boards are grappling with these days?
At the board level, we focus on issues that shape our ability to raise capital, long-term resilience, risk exposure, regulatory posture and responsiveness to new technologies. Much of our discussion focuses on how data-intensive operations and AI-assisted workflows change the control environment in ways that traditional governance structures cannot necessarily capture. We closely monitor whether teams have the information, processes, and accountability they need to respond quickly as conditions change.
Across the industry, boards face increased scrutiny regarding cyber readiness, incident disclosure, artificial intelligence oversight, and reliability of reporting systems, so we factor these trends into our plans. The committee plays a key role in bringing to the surface early warning signs, especially regarding cyber, compliance, and audit.
We also assess whether our governance framework and team members are fit for purpose and able to move quickly and smartly towards success. The central question is how to sustain innovation without compromising safety, reliability, and reliability.
What are your company's toughest challenges and how are you mitigating them?
Two challenges consistently emerge.
First, there is organizational inertia to move away from familiar compliance workflows. Many incumbents recognize that their current processes are expensive and incomplete, but predictability reduces unexpected risks because exception handling and repair paths are well-understood and predictable, and failure modes are well known.
The risk when introducing new governance capabilities is to create uncertainty about how exceptions are detected, escalated, and resolved. We mitigate this through phased adoption and explicit exit criteria, validating new capabilities alongside existing processes, defining risk thresholds upfront, and only transitioning when leaders are confident in the effectiveness of controls, ownership, and readiness for escalation.
Second, companies often underestimate the internal operating models needed to maintain governance and compliance capabilities. The problem is rarely with the software alone. Responsibilities are clear, skills are in place, and escalation works when something falls outside of standard handling. We mitigate this by combining deployment with structured enablement and defined roles. This maintains operational continuity and ensures accountability while steadily building capabilities.
What's new about the way we recruit board members?
What is new in executive recruitment is the level of rigor and future planning required. Recruiting directors for AI-based companies like i-GENTIC is difficult. This is because the AI field is advancing very rapidly, and it is introducing new risks to businesses at the same pace. This points to the need to recruit directors with not only the right business and technical background, but also a learning mindset.
We stay on top of emerging risks and the skills needed to manage them throughout the year, tracking trends in cyber liability, AI oversight, regulatory expectations, and capital market pressures. Another change is a shift to directors with depth in operating in highly regulated environments, rather than relying primarily on former CEOs.
Additionally, as today's governance operates on a faster clock with more real-time reporting and stricter transparency expectations, there is an increased emphasis on directors who can keep up with the continuous flow of information.
Finally, boards are creating more structured succession frameworks, reducing the likelihood that disruption will reveal capability gaps. These trends will help ensure boards are not only qualified for today's environment, but prepared for what the years ahead will require.
How are boards responding to the opportunities and risks of emerging technologies?
We are committed to emerging technologies, including AI, as a core responsibility of our Board of Directors. Management provides a structured explanation that explains not only the functionality of the tool, but also how the tool impacts decision-making, data flows, and exposures. These updates are complemented by external experts who help boards challenge assumptions and place developments in a broader risk and regulatory context.
We ask specific questions about management, monitoring, and incident response and expect clear connections between technology investments and measurable business outcomes. We also formally train directors on AI, cybersecurity, and data governance because boards can only make sound decisions when their understanding is aligned with technology. This allows you to see both opportunities and risks while keeping governance integrated from the start.
What are your strategies to help your company remain resilient?
Resilient companies are those that can absorb shocks without losing strategic direction. We work with management teams to maintain an up-to-date crisis strategy and a clear escalation path for cyber incidents, regulatory actions, business interruptions, and supply chain challenges.
Resilience requires competent decision-makers at multiple levels, so leadership depth and succession planning are central. Regular board evaluations help ensure that governance structures are strong and that information reaches directors in a timely and transparent manner.
We also monitor capital allocation and risk appetite to ensure growth initiatives don't compromise tight controls. These measures will enable companies to continue operating efficiently even when conditions change rapidly.
