Vetting a strategic AI advisor for board work fails most often when the board settles for one celebrated name rather than checking what that person can actually demonstrate. Bringing a single AI expert onto a board that does not yet understand AI is one of the most common governance mistakes companies make, and it usually leaves the board weaker, not stronger.
What’s wrong with hiring one AI expert onto the board?
Hiring one AI expert concentrates AI judgment in a single person that no one else on the board can independently evaluate, which recreates the exact problem the hire was meant to solve. A board that cannot judge AI advice on its own merits cannot tell a good AI director from a persuasive one. This matters because confident claims and real results diverge more often than most boards assume: 95% of enterprise generative AI pilots showed no measurable P&L impact, according to MIT’s NANDA initiative, which analyzed 300 public AI deployments. A board that cannot tell the 5% from the 95% by asking the right questions is exposed either way.
What should you actually check instead?
Judge a candidate on three things, in this order: culture, technology, and leadership, not on energy or buzzwords. A candidate who can talk convincingly about AI in general terms but cannot point to a system they have personally built and run has not cleared the bar.
What is the single most revealing vetting question?
Ask them to describe a system they run themselves, not one they advised on from the outside. Thomas Anglero’s own company runs its engineering function on AI agents rather than a human team, which is the kind of checkable, operating claim a board should be looking for from any advisor it considers.
| Red flag | Green light | |
|---|---|---|
| How they describe AI | General trends and buzzwords. | Specific systems they built or run. |
| What they point to as proof | Client logos and case studies. | Something they operate directly, that can be checked. |
| How they handle questions they can’t answer | Redirect to a prepared talking point. | Say so directly, then explain how they’d find out. |
Read the full argument in Why One AI Expert on Your Board Will Fail, or return to the Strategic AI Advisor guide.
Thomas Anglero is a Strategic AI Advisor, keynote speaker and author of Intro to Artificial Intelligence. He advises boards on AI while running a company whose engineering team is AI agents rather than people. He has delivered over 450 keynotes across 30 countries for organizations including IBM, the WHO, the World Governments Summit and the European Commission.