NACD Report Calls on Corporate Boards to Overhaul Governance Structures for AI Adoption

The National Association of Corporate Directors (NACD) published research in November 2025 urging U.S. corporate boards to modernize legacy governance frameworks to address the risks and oversight demands of enterprise AI adoption. The report identifies AI governance as a continuous board-level function rather than a one-time compliance exercise, citing real-world incidents involving deepfakes, data leaks, and algorithmic bias as evidence of what can go wrong when board oversight is inadequate. NACD recommends that boards establish ongoing monitoring and adjustment mechanisms rather than relying on static policies. For enterprise compliance teams, the report signals growing expectations from institutional governance bodies that AI risk management will be embedded at the highest levels of corporate leadership. Compliance professionals should anticipate that board-level AI oversight will increasingly be treated as a fiduciary responsibility, with implications for audit committee charters, risk reporting structures, and executive accountability frameworks.