Melanie Nolen

Just like the companies they help govern, America’s public company directors are going all-in on generative AI use, but they’re often doing so without guidelines, policies or oversight, a troubling trend with potentially serious legal and operational implications for companies. A new survey of 104 U.S. public company directors finds that 82 percent have used generative AI in their board work in the past six months—up from 66 percent in September 2025.

For all the talk about disruption and reinvention, most CEOs are still leading companies whose revenue is heavily tied to what they already do, and have done, for a long time. In a recent Chief Executive survey of 315 U.S. CEOs, 58 percent said less than 10 percent of their company’s current revenue comes from products or services they did not offer five years ago. Only about one in four said at least 20 percent of revenue now comes from newer offerings.

U.S. public company board members are feeling better about the business environment today than they did three months ago, despite little resolution of issues weighing on business from geopolitics and trade policy to macroeconomic uncertainty and market volatility. But their improved confidence stops short of signaling a clear upward trend for the second half of 2026.