Key Topics for the Board’s Agenda in 2026

Board Perspectives — Issue 191

For boards, disruptive change, information overload and the rising severity of operational risks make it harder to decide what deserves sustained attention. That’s why choosing where to focus the board’s time has become a strategic imperative for the board chair and CEO — and is the defining driver of an effective board agenda.

This issue of Board Perspectives outlines 15 priority topics for boards to consider across governance, strategic and operational areas.

Key insights:

• AI oversight must move from awareness to action. More than 60% of boards now reserve agenda time for AI, yet many lack durable structures to translate discussion into policy, controls and measurable outcomes. Directors should push for clear ethics guidelines, data quality/privacy controls, human-in-the-loop monitoring and phased “quick-win” deployments that build trust and ROI as AI scales.
• Strategy execution and resilience beat static plans. With market shifts outpacing annual planning cycles, boards want real-time indicators, scenario analysis and cross-functional collaboration so management can pivot quickly. Legacy IT modernization (to improve speed to market, customer experience and efficiency) is foundational to sustaining innovation-led growth.
• Risk is broadening — go beyond cybersecurity to data, talent and sustainability. Boards expect layered cyber defenses and continuous monitoring, but attention is also shifting to enterprise data governance (treating data as a managed asset across its life cycle), talent competitiveness amid skills gaps, and sustainability moves that both reduce risk and strengthen access to capital — especially as AI/data-center growth affects energy, water and grid reliability.