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Agentic AI is the buzzword of 2025. Although technically an “emerging technology,” it feels like companies of all sizes are quickly developing and acquiring AI agents to stay ahead of the curve and competition. Just last week, OpenAI launched a research preview of Codex, the companys cloud-based software engineering agent or its most capable AI coding agent yet. And its fair that people are interested and excited. Transforming industries From customer service to supply chain management and the legal profession, AI agents are set to transform industries across the board and are already showing us that they can be pervasive across both consumer and enterprise environments, bringing AI fully into the mainstream. Unlike chatbots and image generators, which provide answers, but require prompts, AI agents execute multistep tasks on behalf of users. In 2025, these autonomous software programs will dramatically change how people interact with technology and how businesses operate. This aligns with Forresters latest findings, which had agentic AI at the top of its recent Top 10 Emerging Technologies for 2025, highlighting the power and potential of this emerging trend. However, as the report also points out, the rewards come with big risks and challenges. Lets dive into these as well as why companies must prioritize governance before development and implementation in order to stay ahead of, not behind, the curve and their competition. A Governance-First Approach In just three years, at least 15% of day-to-day work decisions will be made autonomously by AI agentsup from virtually 0% in 2024. This prediction by Gartner, while promising, sits alongside another key stat: 25% of enterprise breaches will be linked to AI agent abuse. As mentioned above, the rapid and widespread adoption of AI agents, while exciting, comes with complex challenges, such as shadow AI, which is why companies must prioritize a governance-first approach here. So what is it about AI agents that makes them particularly challenging to control? Short answer: their ability to operate autonomously. Long answer: this technology makes it difficult for organizations to have visibility over four things: Who owns which agent What department oversees them What data they have access to What actions the agent can take How do you effectively govern them A comprehensive approach This is where unified governance can step in. With a comprehensive governance framework, companies can ensure that AI agents operate responsibly and are aligned with organizational standards and policies. The alternative: a lack of governance framework for AI agents can mishandle sensitive data, violate compliance regulations, and make decisions misaligned with business objectives. Lets use a real-world example: you are a CEO for a major organization. Your company builds and introduces an AI-powered assistant to help automate workflows and save you time. Now imagine that the assistant gains access to your confidential files. Without guidance or governance, the assistant summarizes sensitive financial projections and closed-door board discussions and shares them with third-party vendors or unauthorized employees. This is definitely a worst-case scenario, but it highlights the importance for a solid governance framework.Heres a helpful governance checklist: Establish guidelines that clearly define acceptable use and assign accountability. Carry out regular reviews to help identify and mitigate potential risks and threats. Appoint the right stakeholder to foster transparency and build trust in how AI agents are used internally and externally. Blurred lines According to Sunil Soares, Founder of YDC, Agentic AI will drive the need for new governance approaches. As more applications include embedded AI and AI agents, the line between applications and AI use cases will become increasingly blurred. I couldnt agree more. Whether you develop AI agents internally or partner with a third-party vendor, this technology will unlock significant value. But the challenges are not one-size-fits-all and will not go away. And while the human element remains important, manual oversight on its own is not sufficient or realistic when it comes to scale and size. Therefore, when you build out your governance framework, ensure that you have automated monitoring tools in place that detect and correct violations of policies, record decisions for greater transparency, and escalate the complex cases that require additional oversight, such as a human-in-the-loop. A centralized governance framework ensures accountability, risk assessment, and ethical compliance. Like everything else in life, you need to create and establish boundaries. And dont worryimplementing a governance framework first wont slow innovation down. When you find the right balance between innovation and risk management, you stay ahead of the curve and competition, leaving room for more cutting-edge AI agents and fewer headaches. For a perfect pill, deploy a unified governance platform for data and AI, as it will be the key to managing and ensuring AI agents dont become the next shadow IT.
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E-Commerce
Perhaps more than at any time in history, boards are being forced to balance innovation and trust. The pressure for this dual mandate arises from intensifying scrutiny, ranging from consumer scrutiny, regulatory oversight, and social media spotlighting, to investor expectations and rapid technological disruption. Against this backdrop, boards must balance daring leaps forward with the confidence that theyre not exposing their organizations to reputational, financial, or ethical harm. The Innovation Imperative The world wont wait. Whether it’s AI-driven customer experiences, carbon-neutral operations, or new modular product platforms, innovation is no longer optional. It’s existential. Boards are shifting from passive approvers of CEO strategies to active enablers of resilience through: – Strategic Questioning: Directors no longer accept its in the works. They challenge leadership to define proof-of-concept milestones, KPIs, and risk thresholds. – Dedicated Innovation Committees: A growing number of boards are creating specialized committees that bring together technical expertise, market insight, and financial discipline, and are tasked with overseeing R&D road maps, digital transformation, and emerging opportunities. – Scenario Planning and “Wicked Problems”: Instead of quarterly admonitions to think big, boards are engaging in immersive sessionsenvisioning future disruption scenarios, stress-testing business models, and mapping counter-strategies against emerging risks. 2. Earning (and Keeping) Stakeholder Trust Innovation ignites trust only when it’s responsibly driven. Yet trust is a fragile asset, easily undermined by data misuse, ethical lapses, and opacity. Boards that prioritize innovation but neglect this dimension may inadvertently sow distrustor worse yet, crisis. Modern trust-building is multidimensional: – Governance That Works: Beyond checkbox compliance, boards are emphasizing transparencystreamlining financial disclosures, clarifying related-party transactions, and publicizing agenda topics like executive compensation, human capital metrics, and cybersecurity readiness. – Ethics as a Board-Level Imperative: Its not enough to hire a CCO. Directors are overseeing ethics frameworks, personally engaging in ethics training, and commissioning third-party audits that signal rigor and independence. – Technology Accountability: Artificial intelligence, facial recognition, and algorithmic pricing all carry risks of bias, privacy intrusion, and unfair outcomes. Boards are implementing algorithmic impact assessments, empowering ethics officers or advisory councils to review systems and ensure regulatory alignment. – Active Stakeholder Engagement: This means meaningful dialogue with employees, customers, communities, and investors. Boards are increasingly hosting forums, focus groups, and virtual fireside chats, signaling that decision-making is inclusive, and that issues like workplace fairness, product safety, or community impact are heard and acted upon. The Tension and the Balance Can innovation and trust coexist on opposing ends of a seesaw? Yes, when theyre purposefully integrated. Imagine launching a new AI-powered behavioral platform. The board advocates for its commercial potential, while also demanding explainability standards, third-party audits, responsible data sourcing, and consent frameworks before go-live. Thats because: – Trust breeds adoption, which fuels returns. – Innovation without oversight breeds backlash. – Day-one compliance investments mitigate scaling risks. Thus, boards are designing innovation with guardrailsempowering management to move fast, but not recklessly. Trust isnt a constraint; its an accelerant. Board Capabilities: What Must Change To settle into this dual mandate, boards need upgraded musclesand perhaps a redesign. Beyond traditional finance and legal literacy, durable boards now include: – Digital natives who understand AI, cloud infrastructure, and cybersecurity. – Data privacy specialists who grasp GDPR, CCPA, and global compliance regimes. – Human Capital leaders who understand the opportunities and challenges of managing six generations of humans, as well as agentic AI in the workplace. Directors must also evolve from police to partners. That means engaging in boardroom debates, questioning business models (not just balance sheets), and prioritizing curiosity and learning. To accomplish these goals, boards are adopting tools like: – Dashboards that track innovation metrics alongside trust proxies (bug reports, IT incidents, ethics hotline trends). – Decision frameworks that layer speed-to-market against reputational cost. – Dynamic charters that allow committees to pivot between innovation and risk oversight depending on strategic context. Board in Action: Leading by Example Some boardrooms are already charting this new course. – One fintech board mandated a digital ethics panel to review product-development milestones. The program delayed a public launch, but in return, they avoided a privacy scandal and earned plaudits from customers and regulators alike. – A global retailers board insisted ESG goals be tied to executive bonuses. That enabled a logistics innovation, slashing carbon emissions and boosted brand trust and investor approval. – A software providers audit committee now cross-purposes voice-of-customer metrics into its risk dashboard, mandating proactive pilot-support before scaling new features, avoiding early usability blowback. These examples show that boards arent victims of complexity. They can be its architects. The Road Ahead Stewardship of innovation and trust is not a checkbox. It’s a continuous evolution. Boards of the future will be dynamic, data-fluent, and culturally influential. They will: 1. Commission future-focused explorationsnot just financial reviewsbefore annual strategy cycles. 2. Embed ethical and trust metrics into quarterly reportingside-by-side with ROI and growth statistics. 3. Institutionalize stakeholder voice through standing advisory groups, embedding external input into board-level decisions. 4. Practice renewal, rotating board talent to reflect changing strategic needsdigital, human capital, ethicswithout losing institutional memory. Agile, accountable, and anchored For board leaders and CHROs, the opportunity is clear: to design governance that is agile, accountable, and anchored in shared values. The goal: sustain not just profits, but purpose. When boards become guardians of both innovation and trust, they dont just manage riskthey propel long-term value creation and societal impact. In summary, the modern boards mandate isnt either/or. Its both/and: bold innovation, disciplined by trust. To succeed, boards must rethink their charters, diversify their expertise, and adopt hybrid oversight frameworks that catalyze progress while safeuarding stakeholder confidence. This is todays blueprint for accountable, future-ready governance. Hollie Castro is an Independent Board Member, advisor and CHRO who helps organizations integrate culture, innovation, and governance at the executive and board level.
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E-Commerce
When a Swedish startup set out to make personal care packaging more sustainable, it turned to an unexpected source of inspiration: aluminum cans. Meadow, the company behind the concept, created a refill system that seals shampoo, lotion, and other products inside aluminum cans. Unlike soda, theres no pull tabthe aluminum cartridge, called Kapsul, has a solid lid. But when you insert the can into Meadows reusable pump and twist on the top, the device pierces the lid with a clean, satisfying pop. When youve used up the product, the aluminum can be easily recycled. We knew that we would not be able to develop a totally new packaging solution, says Victor Ljungberg, Meadows CEO and cofounder. We dont have the time and we cant afford to build totally new infrastructure. We need to look at what we have. [Photo: Meadow] They knew that aluminum beverage cans had a high recycling ratein Sweden, its around 90%. In the U.S., its a much lower 43%. But thats still more than triple the recycling rate for plastic packaging. Aluminum can also be recycled repeatedly without losing any quality, unlike plastic. The aluminum beverage can, the most recycled container, already exists on the market, Ljungberg says. But the whole industry around this has been focused on one thingto use that container for food-grade content. We asked ourselves, okay, what is it that we need to do to take it into new categories such as personal care, pharma, home care, and others? [Photo: Meadow] For safety reasons, they didnt want to put soap in a can that someone might mistake for a drink. Thats why the team designed the lid to only open when its inside the reusable dispenser. The design also makes it easier to use than typical refills that have to be poured into a container, Ljungberg argues. (The company calls the packaging prefills since theyre already ready to use.) Many refills also currently come in thin plastic film that ends up in the trash. Of course, there are other ways to ditch plastic packaging. Companies like Kitsch make shampoo in bar form, for example, so it only needs a small paper box. But Ljungberg believes that many consumers arent quite ready for that much change. [Photo: Meadow] We need to admit that there is a very established single-use culture among people all over the planet, he says. With what we do, we meet consumers where they are, saying that we are not forcing them to change behavior too much. Instead, they will buy the cans on the shelf just as they buy goods today. [Photo: Meadow] The startup partnered with DRT, the Ohio-based company that invented the first pull-tab cans, as well as Ball Corporation, the worlds largest can manufacturer. Ball Corp is also one of the companys minority investors. (The startup has raised around $15 million in seed funding so far.) Because its possible to make the cans on existing equipment in factories, the packaging can easily scale up. Brands can add their own branding to the cans and dispensers, paying a licensing fee to use the system. Companies like Ikea or Muji could also potentially make universal dispensers. Nuniq, a Swiss personal care company that avoids plastic packaging, recently started using Meadow’s system for products like cleanser and body lotion. More brands will soon follow when Meadow launches in the U.K. this fall.
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E-Commerce
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