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navigating change.

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AI Governance for Bank Boards: The 2026 Playbook

AI & Banking

13 min read•2026-05-28

AI Governance for Bank Boards: The 2026 Playbook

By 2026, AI has moved from the innovation lab onto the board's risk register — and most boards are still governing it with instincts built for a previous era. This is a working playbook: the accountabilities to fix, the failure modes to watch, the cadence to adopt, and a board-pack template directors can put to use in their next meeting.

*Co-authored by Jim Marous and Michael Clark.* For most of the last decade, artificial intelligence sat comfortably outside the boardroom. It lived in innovation labs, in data-science teams, in proofs of concept that were applauded in town halls and quietly shelved a quarter later. Directors heard ...

Jim MarousTop 5 Banking Influencer & Strategist

Future of Work

Humans + AI: The Operating Model

Ross Dawson

AI & Technology

From Products to Journeys: The Birth of the Intelligence Layer

Michael Clark

Future of Work•6 min read

Where to Apply Generative AI to Enhance Board Performance

AI is arriving in the boardroom. The question worth a director's attention is where it genuinely helps, and where it must not go. The contribution of GenAI to board work rises from the clerical to the judgmental, and its value rises with it. So does the care it demands.

Ross Dawson

Future of Work•6 min read

Why Humans + AI Recursive Self-Improving Decisions Will Reshape Business

The next phase of business will be centered on Humans + AI recursive self-improvement. At the heart of every organization lies a single activity: making decisions. The organizations that build systems to learn from decisions at every level will compound their advantages rapidly.

Ross Dawson

Future of Work•7 min read

Augmenting Human Capabilities When All Work Becomes Humans + AI

We are crossing a threshold. Not in some distant imagined future, but right now, in the workflows and meetings and decisions that constitute the everyday reality of organizational life.

Ross Dawson

AI & Technology•8 min read

Signals of Exponentiality

Most people perceive change as a linear shift, happening gradually over long periods of time. But accelerated technology adoption and rapid advances in science are happening so much quicker than humans are typically used to.

Brett King

Banking & Strategy•10 min read

Keeping Up with Jim: February 2026

Jim Marous spent February doing what he does best — pulling the industry's most uncomfortable truths into the spotlight and demanding action. From a dangerous execution gap to what Liquid Death can teach banks.

Jim Marous

AI & Banking•5 min read

Why the Future Customer May No Longer Be Human

Increasingly, humans are stepping back from the mechanics of choice. Instead of navigating products and services directly, they are delegating objectives to software agents. The human sets intent; the agent executes.

Michael Clark

AI & Banking•8 min read

When AI Agents Control Your Wallet: The $12 Trillion Shift No One's Talking About

MasterCard's CEO recently stated that within a few years, the majority of discretionary consumer spending will shift to AI agents. This isn't a prediction about 2040—this is happening now.

Brett King

AI & Banking•9 min read

We're Building a Rival Intelligence—And We're Not Ready for the Conversation

Never in our entire history as a species has there been a rival intelligence. AI isn't just another technology wave—it's a fundamental shift in who makes decisions, and we need to start imagining what that world looks like.

Brett King

Data Strategy•5 min read

Why Data Is Becoming a Board-Level Liability

For most of the digital era, data sat quietly in the background. AI changed that. Now data gaps become outcome gaps, and if you don't treat data as a strategic asset, you don't remove its value—you outsource it.

Michael Clark

AI & Banking•6 min read

Why AI Will Replace Your Financial Advisor—And Why That's a Good Thing

Every human advisory role has the potential to be dramatically disrupted by AI. But for most people, that disruption will deliver better financial outcomes than they've ever had access to.

Brett King

Innovation•6 min read

Banks Spend Millions on Differentiation, But All Look the Same

Every banking leader claims their digital experience is unique. Then you check their apps and marketing—it feels like someone copied and pasted across the whole industry.

Jim Marous

Future of Work•8 min read

What Learning and Work Are Missing in the Age of AI

AI is exposing tensions in how we develop people. The real question is whether our systems can move beyond knowledge-first models to develop judgment, adaptability, and critical reasoning.

Michael Clark

Future of Work•10 min read

Humanity's Next Quarter Century: 10 Defining Facets of Our Future

From demographic shifts to AI collaboration, ten themes will define the next 25 years. Our actions now will ripple across generations, determining whether humanity flourishes or struggles.

Ross Dawson

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|navigating change.

AI Governance for Bank Boards: The 2026 Playbook

Humans + AI: The Operating Model

From Products to Journeys: The Birth of the Intelligence Layer

Where to Apply Generative AI to Enhance Board Performance

Why Humans + AI Recursive Self-Improving Decisions Will Reshape Business

Augmenting Human Capabilities When All Work Becomes Humans + AI

Signals of Exponentiality

Keeping Up with Jim: February 2026

Why the Future Customer May No Longer Be Human

When AI Agents Control Your Wallet: The $12 Trillion Shift No One's Talking About

We're Building a Rival Intelligence—And We're Not Ready for the Conversation

Why Data Is Becoming a Board-Level Liability

Why AI Will Replace Your Financial Advisor—And Why That's a Good Thing

Banks Spend Millions on Differentiation, But All Look the Same

What Learning and Work Are Missing in the Age of AI

Humanity's Next Quarter Century: 10 Defining Facets of Our Future

Apply this thinking.

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navigating change.