The research shows 43% of Australian governance leaders have placed AI at the top of their strategic priorities, and 61% of organisations have already imposed restrictions or guidelines on employee use of AI. Yet only 13% of boards have appointed directors with AI expertise, and just 21% require directors to undergo AI training. This imbalance suggests AI capability inside Australian boardrooms is not advancing fast enough to match enterprise-wide adoption.
“Australian boards are moving quickly to integrate AI into their businesses but are slower to build the governance frameworks needed to keep pace,” said Dottie Schindlinger, Executive Director of the Diligent Institute. “With too few organisations auditing AI usage, recruiting directors with AI expertise, or mandating training, they risk a significant mismatch between AI adoption and AI oversight.”
Just 37% of boards have conducted an audit of how employees are currently using AI, leaving many organisations without visibility into the extent or risk profile of AI already embedded across operations. Australian boards were also found to be more risk-averse than their counterparts in Asia: 61% restrict employee AI use, compared with just 30% of organisations across Asia. Conversely, Asian boards are more than twice as likely to recruit AI-skilled directors (28% versus 13% in Australia), reflecting a stronger emphasis on long-term AI governance capability.
Cybersecurity continues to dominate Australian strategic planning. More than half of Australian boards (53%) identify cybersecurity as their top priority—far higher than the APAC average of 39%. Managing cyber risk outranks growth and expansion initiatives, with 47% of Australian respondents marking it as the most urgent issue to address in their next board meeting.
When asked what they would prioritise if given complete freedom over the board agenda, Australian respondents put digital transformation and AI first (63%), followed by growth strategies (57%). They were also more concerned than Asian peers about financial conditions and economic uncertainty (48% versus 38%), while Asian boards placed higher emphasis on business continuity and crisis management (45% versus 34%).
Daniel Popovski, AI and Tech Policy and Advocacy Lead at the Governance Institute of Australia, said the findings reflect a shift in how boards balance opportunity and risk. “The survey results reveal that Australian organisations are putting cybersecurity and AI adoption ahead of growth as their top strategic priorities, reflecting recent high-profile cyber security failures and the fear of missing out on the potential opportunities that AI technologies may deliver in the workplace,” he said. “They recognise that if they don’t get the balance of technology and risk right, the foundations for growth simply won’t hold.”