Few companies have benefited from Warren Buffett’s wisdom as a director, apart from Berkshire Hathaway, the financial conglomerate he chairs. But new developments in generative AI make it possible for many more boards to distil, replicate and interrogate the veteran investor’s collected wisdom, simply by uploading all Buffett’s letters to shareholders and other public pronouncements to a large language model.
That suggestion, from a FTSE 100 client of Diligent, prompted the software group to add “long-term value investor” to the list of personas created for its new AI Board Member. Launched last week, this screen-based tool offers directors “a digital colleague in the boardroom”. Trained on board materials, news and research, it can be tailored to offer specialist views, on demand, from personas, including an AI-Buffett (though the company says it is not based on any specific individual’s work), an activist, and experts on cyber security or geopolitics.
It is an unlikely-sounding mash-up of Brave New World and the corporate governance code. But Diligent is far from the only provider in this growing market.