AI Governance and strategic oversight - a new mandate for boards

The conversation surrounding Artificial Intelligence has shifted. It has moved decisively from the "innovation lab" to the "situation room." For today’s board of directors, AI is no longer a peripheral technicality; it is a fundamental reconfiguration of how business value is created and protected.
As Romania navigates this strategic turning point, the primary challenge is not the complexity of the software, but the quality of the stewardship. Effective AI governance has become a deeply human responsibility—the high-stakes art of ensuring that as our tools become more autonomous, our oversight remains grounded in institutional wisdom.

Why AI Governance is now a core board responsibility

In the modern boardroom, corporate governance is entering an era of "augmented leadership." However, a crucial distinction must be made: the objective is not to delegate leadership to algorithms, but to leverage data to sharpen human judgment. As Carmen Micu, CEO & Co-Founder of Envisia, emphasizes "AI should be a catalyst for better-informed, human-centric decisions, not a replacement for them."

The board’s mandate is to protect the "strategic soul" of the organization while harnessing the machine’s velocity. This requires three pillars of active oversight:

• Demystifying the "why" - boards must move beyond accepting "black box" outcomes and demand a level of transparency that makes every AI-driven insight explainable.
• Non-negotiable accountability - there must be a clear line of sight from an AI-assisted decision to a human executive. Accountability cannot be coded away.
• The ethical audit - high-performance boards are now questioning algorithms with the same skepticism traditionally reserved for financial audits or M&A due diligence.

Aligning AI implementation with digital transformation strategy

The reality of digital evolution is that a digital transformation strategy fails the moment it loses its human anchor. While many organizations are tempted to chase "technological novelty", true strategic leadership involves anchoring AI implementation directly to the company’s long-term purpose.

The board of directors must serve as the bridge between technical capability and corporate culture by:

• Prioritizing trust over speed: if stakeholders feel alienated by automation, the transformation will likely face internal rejection.
• Upholding data integrity: viewing data accuracy as a core pillar of business integrity, rather than a back-office maintenance task.
• Exercising strategic patience: recognizing that while AI software scales instantly, building a resilient, AI-literate culture is a deliberate, human-paced process.

Navigating the AI risk landscape - cybersecurity and compliance

Innovation without a robust safety framework is merely a liability in disguise. As AI opens new competitive doors, it simultaneously introduces sophisticated vulnerabilities. For the board, AI risk management has shifted from a defensive IT posture to a vital safeguard of the organization’s reputation.

In the realm of cybersecurity oversight, the most significant threats are often the most subtle. "The biggest challenge is the traceability of responsibility" notes Carmen Micu. If an AI system operates on biased or compromised data, the resulting fallout is a failure of leadership, not a technical glitch. Boards must be equipped to recognize the early warnings of "algorithmic drift" before they manifest as a crisis.

Preparing for regulation: the board's role in compliance

Legislation such as the EU AI Act should be viewed as a baseline for responsible growth, not a ceiling. Proactive boards are already shifting from reactive compliance to "ethics by design" potentially establishing a Chief AI Governance Officer role to ensure that machine logic remains synchronized with human law and organizational values. 

Octavian Oprea, Member of Parliament and Secretary of the Committee for Technology and Information, warns that Romania cannot protect its citizens from AI-related risks unless it tests and understands the technology. At present, AI-related legislative proposals are improvised and have little real impact on public administration. He notes “Artificial intelligence could become a real competitive advantage for the Romanian state if it is used based on highly accurate data. We are used to decisions being made less on data and more on perceptions (…). We approved a draft law on organizing and operating the national catalogue of public services (…). The Government has 10 months to operationalize this platform.”

Robert Berza, Executive Director of the Edge Institute, views the current landscape as a paradox: Romania is rich in talent but poor in coordination. While Romanian experts are already operating at the global vanguard of technology and AI, their potential remains untapped at home due to the absence of an integrated national strategy. As Berza points out, we see plenty of "sporadic efforts," yet we lack a unified framework that would allow these specialists to shape the country’s training programs and governance structures.

In Berza’s view, Romania is currently caught between two equally dangerous extremes: the recklessness of rushing into AI without a plan, and the stagnation of total paralysis. Both risks are symptoms of a deeper vacuum in digital public policy.

"The first risk is rushing... the second is doing nothing", Berza warns, underscoring that without decisive leadership, Romania—and Europe at large—will remain a bystander in the global AI race. While the U.S. and China have already carved out dominant, albeit opposing, regulatory models—one protected, the other open-source—Europe continues to lose ground. For Berza, the message is clear: without a unified strategy and a coherent regulatory framework, we aren't just falling behind; we are choosing to stay out of the race entirely.

Strategic leadership in the age of Artificial Intelligence

Ultimately, leadership in this era requires a sophisticated balance. AI can provide the logic, the speed and the pattern recognition. What it cannot provide is empathy, cultural intuition or a moral compass.

While an algorithm can be trained to emulate emotional intelligence, it cannot feel the weight of a decision that affects a community or a workforce. The board’s ultimate value lies in its ability to interpret nuance, navigate ambiguity and apply the kind of high-level judgment that no line of code can replicate.

At Envisia, we believe that "governance in the future tense" is about professionalizing this balance. It is about being a leader who is sophisticated enough to use the tool, but wise enough to remain its master.

About Envisia

Envisia stands as Romania’s premier business school dedicated to the professionalization of boards and the advancement of corporate governance. Through our accredited programs, elite masterclasses and educational initiatives, we empower leaders to translate complex challenges—like the rise of Artificial Intelligence—into sustainable performance and institutional trust.

In an era of rapid technological disruption, structured education is no longer a luxury; it is the foundation of independent thinking and professional integrity. To help leaders navigate this new landscape, Envisia offers specialized pathways designed for the modern director:

• International excellence: The Henley–Envisia Postgraduate Certificate in Board Practice and Directorship provides a global framework anchored in OECD principles, essential for those seeking international recognition and a sophisticated grasp of board dynamics.
• Local expertise: Our program, "Corporate Governance that Creates Value – Corporate Governance in Practice", developed in partnership with the Bucharest Stock Exchange and the Romanian-American University and accredited by the Ministry of Education, offers training specifically tailored to the nuances of the Romanian economic environment.

Discover how to master the balance between technology and leadership at www.envisia.eu.

Share on: Facebook Linkedin