Read First. Think First.

This post highlights why directors must read and think for themselves before turning to AI and shows how purpose‑built tools can elevate board oversight. Through real examples and practical prompts, it demonstrates how AI can sharpen analysis while keeping decision‑making firmly in human hands.

Board directors today face a familiar but increasingly demanding reality: meeting materials are getting longer, timelines are getting tighter, and expectations for good governance keep rising. Directors want to show up prepared – really prepared – but the workload doesn’t make it easy. So, it makes sense that, more and more, directors are turning to AI tools for help.

But with that trend comes an important question:

Can we use AI to improve our board meeting readiness without compromising our independent thinking?

That core idea – the responsibility to think for yourself – was the central message of an earlier Savvy Director blog, Mind Over Machine. In that post, I emphasized that, as directors, we must never outsource our judgment or critical thinking. Not to management. Not to consultants. And certainly not to AI.

Today, I stand by that message. But here’s another message for your consideration:

AI, when designed and used well, can enhance your independent thinking – not replace it.

This week’s edition of The Savvy Director explores how to use a board-purpose AI tool such as ChatDPQ™ as a thinking partner to elevate your board preparation, sharpen your insights, and surface risks or assumptions you might otherwise miss.

I’ll share a real example of how a project I worked on could have benefited from precisely that kind of analysis.

Think of this as your how-to-guide for using AI in a way that strengthens, rather than weakens, your independent thinking.

You’ll appreciate being ready for your board meeting.

Read First. Think First. Then Use AI.

Let’s start with a principle that hasn’t changed and never will:

Directors must read the materials themselves.

Technology, no matter how sophisticated, can’t substitute for a director’s due diligence in reading reports, proposals, and other board material. Why? Because your initial read-through forms the mental scaffolding required for independent thinking.

As you read the material, you build your own understanding of the issue, noticing gaps, inconsistencies, or missing information. Then you start to form your impressions before you hear other views – human or artificial.

This first pass is essential. It protects your judgment from being shaped prematurely by an AI-generated summary or interpretation. In a word, independent thinking is based on independent reading.

So, delay bringing AI into the conversation until after your first read. And make sure the AI tool you’re using has security guardrails to protect your information. You don’t want confidential data ‘leaking’ into the wider internet, so it gets used to train other AI models. Free, generic AI tools can be risky when it comes to data security.

Generic AI Tools Fall Short for Board Work

Given how widely available generic AI tools are now, directors naturally experiment with them for their meeting prep. But by doing so they can run into problems.

Generic AI tools can:

• Produce confident but incorrect interpretations.
• Miss governance-specific concerns.
• Offer advice outside a director’s oversight role.
• Introduce bias from training data.
• Overstep into management territory.
• Misinterpret meeting materials entirely.

It’s because they weren’t built for the boardroom. They might not have a thorough grasp of concepts like fiduciary duty, board dynamics, and the bright line between oversight and operations.

That’s why DirectorPrep built ChatDPQ™, a board-specific AI tool with proprietary guardrails that keep it tightly focused on one thing – helping directors prepare for and be ready to participate effectively in board meetings.

ChatDPQ’s newest feature – file upload – builds on that foundation. When you upload a document, ChatDPQ analyzes it with a governance lens. It doesn’t stray into areas that aren’t the purview of a board of directors. And it doesn’t allow you to outsource your judgment to the cloud.

Think of it as a second set of eyes – not a second brain. The brain is still yours.

How to Use ChatDPQ as a Thinking Partner, Not a Proxy

Here’s a simple workflow we suggest – a practical, secure, repeatable system.

Step 1: Read the material yourself.

Your independent thinking starts here. Build your understanding first.

Step 2: Upload the document into ChatDPQ.

This could be a proposal, a charter, a strategic plan, a report – any item the board is asked to understand, advise on, or make a decision about.

Step 3: Ask ChatDPQ for analysis using a board lens.

Examples include:

• “Identify gaps or assumptions the board should understand.”
• “What risks or bottlenecks could affect implementation?”
• “What’s missing from a board‑oversight perspective?”
• “What questions should the board ask management?”
• “What follow‑up diligence steps are recommended?”

Note: Don’t ask ChatDPQ to make a decision. That’s the board’s job.

Step 4: Compare ChatDPQ’s insights to your own.

The value of AI lies in its ability to challenge your thinking, not just confirm it.

Step 5: Use the insights to refine your questions.

AI helps surface angles that sharpen your oversight, insight, and foresight.

This approach ensures that your thinking remains independent, while expanding your ability to analyze, inquire, and interpret.

This tool doesn’t think for you. It helps you think better.

With its new file upload feature, ChatDPQ can help you work securely with the documents you’re preparing to discuss, within guardrails that keep analysis focused on governance and board meeting readiness.

Think of it as an AI board companion: something that doesn’t replace your own judgment, but helps you challenge your own assumptions, widen your field of view, and sharpen the questions you bring to the board table.

Guidance for AI use emphasizes a balanced approach, robust security measures, human oversight, and board willingness to challenge discrepancies between AI output and management’s framing.

A Real Example: The Cultural Mapping Tool Project

For several years, I served on the board of an independent foundation that invested in projects and initiatives for our local arts and culture sector. One particularly promising initiative was a tech project designed to create a cultural mapping tool with AI-enhanced capabilities.

The concept was inspiring.

• A digital platform to map relationships among arts organizations, funders, artists, venues, and more.
• A tool to help the sector understand interdependencies.
• A way to visualize the domino effect when one organization faces financial strain.
• A resource to encourage collaboration, shared planning, and collective resilience.

We had strong partners. We had enthusiastic leaders. We had a thoughtful working group made up of key leaders from across the sector. And the research phase went well.

Everything pointed toward a high-potential pilot, but we missed something.

When the pilot phase struggled, and ultimately the project was abandoned, the root cause became painfully clear:

We underestimated the barrier to accessing the community data needed to power the tool.

We assumed that because organizations were willing to participate in discussions, they would also be willing to share their operational data. That assumption turned out to be wrong.

Data access became the single biggest bottleneck. And the project could not move forward without it.

What ChatDPQ later revealed:

Out of curiosity, I recently uploaded the original project charter into ChatDPQ and asked for an analysis of potential risks, assumptions, and feasibility issues.

Within seconds, ChatDPQ identified what none of us had flagged:

“The success of this project relies heavily on stakeholder willingness to provide access to their operational and financial data. The board should verify explicit commitments from participating organizations before approving further investment.”

This was exactly the issue that ended up derailing the pilot – but we didn’t see it early enough.

If we had access to ChatDPQ at the time, directors could have:

• Seen the data access risk clearly.
• Understood the dependency on stakeholder readiness.
• Approached the pilot with stronger due diligence.
• Designed a pilot that addressed this bottleneck upfront.

This is the kind of scenario where purpose-built AI genuinely enhances board oversight. Not by replacing judgment, but by reinforcing it.

To be clear: an AI tool wouldn’t have “made the decision.” It wouldn’t have replaced directors’ responsibility to ask questions, read carefully, and judge trade-offs. But it could have helped us spot a missing prerequisite much earlier in the process so we could take corrective action.

That’s what a thinking partner does: it helps you see what you missed, so you can govern better.

Practical Prompts You Can Use

If you want to start using AI to sharpen your independent thinking, here are some prompts that work especially well with the file upload feature:

• “What assumptions in this proposal require board validation?”
• “Identify any operational dependencies that could create risks for implementation.”
• “What due diligence steps should the board consider before approving this project?”
• “What stakeholder readiness issues might affect feasibility?”
• “What questions should the board ask to understand risks, gaps, and alternatives?”
• “Where does this report lack clarity from an oversight perspective?”
• “What early indicators would signal the project is not on track?”
• “I’m a board director preparing for a meeting. This is a [project charter / proposal / report]. Please help me analyze it for decision readiness: assumptions, gaps, risks, and the questions I should bring to management.”

If the AI output clashes with management’s framing, treat it as a prompt for inquiry, not a “gotcha.” A thoughtful approach includes a plan for discrepancies and keeps the conversation constructive.

These kinds of questions ensure that your discussion remains at a governance level – not buried in operational weeds. And they exemplify how AI can help expand your awareness while keeping you firmly in control of your own thinking.

How to Avoid AI Overreach

AI becomes a liability in board work only if we allow it to replace, not inform, our thinking. Here’s how to stay safely in control:

• Always read the material yourself first.
• Treat AI output as prompts, not conclusions.
• Validate anything that seems surprising or counter-intuitive.
• Keep your fiduciary responsibility front and center.
• Remember: AI does not make decisions. Boards do.

AI should enhance your independence, never compromise it.

Your Takeaways:

• Independent thinking remains every director’s responsibility. AI cannot replace it.
• Due diligence starts with you. Read first, then use file upload analysis to stress-test your thinking.
• The file upload feature helps reveal hidden assumptions, gaps, risks, questions, and dependencies – especially when you read the document first.
• AI is a powerful thinking partner, not a proxy. It shouldn’t make decisions for you or the board.
• Savvy directors stay curious, ask better questions, and leverage tools that help them see what they might otherwise miss.
• Purpose‑built tools like ChatDPQ provide governance‑specific insights that generic AI tools cannot.

Resources:

• Using AI in the boardroom – new opportunities and challenges. PwC Governance Insights Center. November 2025.
• Mind Over Machine. Scott Baldwin. The Savvy Director. September 2025.
• Boost Your Meeting PREP with AI. Scott Baldwin. The Savvy Director. May 2024.
• AI and Board Governance. NACD in partnership with Data & Trust Alliance. © 2023 National Association of Corporate Directors.
• AI and the Role of the Board of Directors. Holly J. Gregory. Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance. October 2023.
• Recommendation of the Council on Artificial Intelligence. © OECD 2019.
• AI Risk Management Framework. National Institute of Standards and Technology.

Thank you.

Scott

Scott Baldwin is a certified corporate director (ICD.D) and co-founder of DirectorPrep.com – an online membership with practical tools and valuable insights for board directors at every stage – from first appointment to seasoned board leader.

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