Values at the table
AI in the boardroom, ethics, failures and case studies.
Two and a half hours on whether a board's values hold when AI arrives: members' own use of AI, fairness and red lines, and the lessons of real failures.
- Level
- Focus
- Learning time
- 2 hours 30 minutes
- Where
- AI and Governance
- Price
- £69
When you step up to a higher level, what you paid in the last 12 months for lower-level courses inside the bigger course comes off its price, in proportion to how much of each is inside it, whichever topic it's from. Courses at the same or a lower level don't give credit against each other. A Focus course or above always costs at least £15. Read the full terms
Certificate of Completion, or Certificate of Completion and Assessment with a short assessment
Overview and Outcomes.
Who It's For
Board members, trustees, councillors and governance professionals testing their values against AI
Overview
Four modules turn the spotlight on the board's own conduct and values. It starts with members' use of AI for papers, minutes and preparation, drawing on the Diligent Institute's 2026 director survey and the Charity Commission's 2024 position, and sets out safeguards for AI note-taking and the custodian of the record. It then turns to fairness, with the competing definitions of Kleinberg, Mullainathan and Raghavan and of Chouldechova, the OECD AI Principles, ethics panels, the Equality Act 2010 and the Welsh Socio-economic Duty. Next come cases where governance failed: Robodebt, the Post Office Horizon scandal and the Arup deepfake fraud. A capstone closes the Focus with two invented Welsh organisations, a council and a young carers' charity.
Aims
The aim is to help boards keep confidentiality, judgement and the record in human hands, to turn stated values into tests and red lines before pressure arrives, and to respond steadily and openly when an AI incident reaches the agenda.
In summary, you will be able to:
- Use AI in your own board work through a members' protocol and note-taking safeguards that protect confidentiality, accuracy and the formal record of decisions.
- Apply competing meanings of fairness, the OECD AI Principles and equality duties to set the red lines your board will hold on the use of AI.
- Plan your board's response to an AI incident, drawing on Robodebt, the Post Office Horizon scandal and the Arup fraud to surface warning signs early.
What you'll develop
Through this Focus course, you will build the ability to:
- Set out safeguards for AI note-taking in meetings and the governance professional's role as custodian of the formal record.
- Explain why fairness in an AI system is a values choice, using the three competing meanings of fairness set out by Kleinberg and colleagues and Chouldechova.
- Plan how your board will turn its values into tests and red lines, and judge what an ethics panel can and cannot add.
- Describe what went wrong in Robodebt, the Post Office Horizon scandal and the Arup deepfake fraud, and the warning signs each case left.
- Plan your board's response to an AI incident using the six steps, and the routes that bring bad news to the board early.
- Plan your board's first ninety days on AI, and score its current position using the five-layer synthesis and six-area self-assessment.
Built from 2 parts.
2 hours 30 minutes of learning.
- 01AI at the board tableAI in board papers and minutes, ethics and red linesBitesize2 modules
- 02When governance failsAI governance failures and case studiesBitesize2 modules
Keep going.
Part of the AI and Governance topic, also sold whole as Minding the machine.
Go deeper, and pay only the difference
- You are hereFocus, 2 hours 30 minutes, £69
- The whole topicExplore, Minding the machine, 6 hours, £129. Already own the Focus? You pay £60.
When you step up to a higher level, what you paid in the last 12 months for lower-level courses inside the bigger course comes off its price, in proportion to how much of each is inside it, whichever topic it's from. Courses at the same or a lower level don't give credit against each other. A Focus course or above always costs at least £15. Prices per person. Read the full terms