How AI Can Help Your Board Get the Right Information

During today’s webinar, Arturo Dell, associate director and Sharlene Tibi, head of business development, explored the implications of artificial intelligence (AI) in governor or council meetings.

Firstly, thank you to all the attendees for joining, participating and asking some insightful questions.

Introducing and setting the scene

To begin, Arturo asked the participants about the last time they used AI assistance and even gave his own example of creating images. Here are some answers that were shared about impressive AI moments:

• Getting support with summarising responses to a government consultation
• Receiving sensible suggestions for consolidation risks
• Locating, interrogating and summarising large amounts of data
• Seeking holiday destination advice
• Evaluating meals

From these examples, it’s clear that AI has impacted people’s personal and professional lives in many different ways.

What is AI and what have we learned over the last three years?

Arturo then explored the differences between Machine Learning and Generative AI whilst providing their uses within the university sector.

Machine Learning

An overview of Machine Learning:

• Machine Learning, also called Narrow AI, assists with work in specialist areas like predictive analytics
• It has years of usage across multiple sectors so it’s potential is better understood
• It is capable of working with smaller datasets like spreadsheets and documents
• Machine Learning models mirror logical human decision-making
• It can be used for predictions, descriptions and recommendations

Machine Learning in universities

Machine Learning has various uses is universities, such as:

• Student engagement predictive analysis
• Automated marking (in STEM subjects)
• Space utilisation analysis (using computer vision)

Student engagement predictive analysis uses historical data and machine learning. It takes into account a student’s attendance and their submission track record to predict if their performance is at risk. This allows student support teams or tutors to intervene and assist with anyone that is at risk of falling behind.

Automated making uses software or AI algorithms to grade students’ work in the case of multiple-choice or non-essay-based exams. An advantage of this is that lectures or tutors don’t have to manually grade each exam which is time-consuming and inefficient. Faster marking means that students can receive feedback quicker and consequently have more time to study or ask for assistance.

Space utilisation analysis is used to evaluate footage of common areas, libraries and classrooms that are being used with the assistance of cameras and AI algorithms. This allows institutions to monitor how rooms are occupied and compare it to the capacity and expected quantity. It also allows for a more efficient way understanding and managing which rooms should be used for specific classes or other events. Another advantage is that universities can have an understanding of peak times for libraries, for example. Space utilisation analysis provides many benefits that allow educators to adapt according to the students’ needs and patterns.

Generative AI

Generative AI:

• Has risks of hallucinations which means that it can give false or misleading information
• Can integrate with Teams which makes it safer to test as it’s embedded into a secure, compliant platform
• Can be costly
• Is causing excitement within executive teams who want to benefit from this technology

Generative AI in universities

In universities, Generative AI is used for:

• Universal Copilot
• AI as a tutor

The University of Manchester was the first university to roll out Copilot to all 65,000 students and staff and will be completed this summer. Microsoft Copilot assists staff and students with efficiency. For example, it can summarise long documents and provide the user with the relevant, key pieces of information. For many, this will enhance their studying or decision-making.

With AI’s ability to be used as a tutor, many students and educators benefit from this capability. Digital learning tools can provide one-on-one support to the students who needs tutoring. AI tutors can understand knowledge gaps and give immediate feedback, implement the Socratic method and provide interactive lessons. Additionally, unlike humans, AI tutors are available 24/7. This means that students can receive tailored support wherever and whenever they need it.

First steps with generative AI

Referencing Co-Intelligence by Ethan Mollick, Arturo then shared some useful tips for using AI. He notes that:

• AI is useful for meeting summarisation and the extraction of actions and tasks
• AI is mostly driven by early adopters rather than as structured rollout
• There are four rues for getting the most out of Generative AI.

The four rules:

1. Always bring AI to the table
2. Be the human in the loop
3. Treat AI as a person but tell it what kind of person it is
4. Assume that the AI you’re using is the worst AI you’ll ever use as it’s rapidly improving

What are the key risks of AI?

According to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), these are top five business risks with AI:

1. Data Security and Privacy
2. Compliance and Governance
3. Competitive and Risk Strategy
4. Culture and Change Management
5. Leadership and Skills Gap

While there are many benefits to using AI, it’s important to remember that it can produce errors, false information and has its biases. That’s why the role of human oversight is still necessary. Understanding its limitations as well as its advantages will allow your university to make sound judgments in how and where they choose to apply its uses.

Bringing AI functionality to Convene

So, what does this mean for AI in the boardroom? Convene is a secure digital platform that can host meetings, share sensitive information and complete various governance duties.

During an example, Arturo used Convene’s AI capabilities to summarise and extract specific pieces of information from a document which referred to the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act 2023.

Summarisation: Convene AI reduces the time it takes to get transcripts and recordings. You can edit the AI-generated summaries to improve precision. If you want to revisit a certain topic, you can even search for specific words. It also provides your council or governing body, with subheadings such as: Roles, Needs, Timelines, Sentiments Decisions, New Opportunities and Next Steps.

Executive-Ready Minutes: Convene AI doesn’t just note down your minutes. It can edit grammar, tone and structure according to your council’s preference.

With Convene, directors, CEO’s, executives, secretaries and administrators can improve efficiency and productivity.

Your AI Companion can assist with:

• Navigating the platform
• Resolving technical issues
• Answering questions about your documents and summarising them

While Convene does integrate with Teams, it also allows your board to access and execute its governance tasks on a centralised, GDPR compliant platform.

To give your board the option to use AI securely, book a meeting now!

Convene GRC For Universities

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Convene GRC For Universities is the place for:

Knowledge exchange: An opportunity to share with other experts and learn from best practice from the sector and elsewhere.

​Questions: Ask questions in our trustworthy environment under the Chatham House Rule.

Unique perspectives: A focused space where board members and officers can gather with mutual understanding.

Community: Meet regularly via online webinars and in between meetings via LinkedIn.