board-ai-update

Board AI Update

Purpose

Template for the AI section of a board update. Takes results data and produces a tight, number-filled narrative. This is the template — board-narrative-coach is the skill that rehearses and pressure-tests before drafting.

Core principle: Every paragraph has a number. No number, no paragraph.

Process

1. Every paragraph must contain at least one specific number. 2. No AI buzzwords: "leveraging," "transformative," "cutting-edge," "digital transformation," "game-changing." 3. Active voice, short sentences. Write like a founder, not a consultant. 4. Do NOT inflate or hedge. If the number is small, own it. Boards trust founders who are honest about early results. 5. Only include claims the founder can defend if questioned.

Required Inputs

• What was done: Initiative name, participants, timeframe
• Results: Adoption rate, hours saved, cost, quality signals
• Plan: Next use case, timeline, owner, target metric
• Risks: What's not working yet (optional but recommended for skeptical boards)

Output

Produce the board update in this exact format:

## Board AI Update — [Quarter/Date]
**Company:** [name]

### What We Did
[1 paragraph. What was the initiative, who participated, what timeframe.
Must include: number of engineers, the specific use case, the duration.]

### What Happened
[1 paragraph. Results with specific numbers.
Must include: adoption rate, hours saved or cost avoided, quality signal, tool cost.
ROI calculation if the numbers support it.]

### What's Next
[1 paragraph. Forward-looking plan.
Must include: next use case, timeline, named owner, target metric for next quarter.]

For skeptical boards, add:

### Risks and Honest Assessment
[2-3 sentences. What's not working yet, what you're watching.
Shows self-awareness. Boards trust founders who name their own risks.]

Format Variations

Adapt to what the board expects:

Board preference	Adjustment
Data-heavy	Add a metrics table between "What Happened" and "What's Next"
Narrative	Keep as-is, one paragraph per section
Slides	Convert each section to a slide title + 3-4 bullet points
Brief mention	Compress to 2-3 sentences total, lead with the strongest number

Anti-Patterns

The Buzzword Update

Symptom: "We are leveraging AI to transform our development workflow and drive innovation across the organization." Consequence: Board learns nothing. Founder sounds like they're reading a press release. Fix: Replace with specifics. "8 engineers used AI code review for 2 months. 6 kept using it. They save about 6 hours per week combined. Tool costs $800/month."

The Apology Tour

Symptom: Update is mostly about what didn't work, framed defensively. Consequence: Board loses confidence. Founder sounds uncertain. Fix: Lead with what you did and what happened. Put risks in their own section, framed as self-awareness, not failure.

Numbers Without Context

Symptom: "Saved 24 hours per month" with no reference point. Consequence: Board can't evaluate if that's good or bad. Fix: Always provide context. "24 hours/month across 6 engineers — about 4 hours each, or 30 minutes per day. Tool costs $800/month, which is $33 per hour of capacity recovered."

References

• board-narrative-coach — rehearses the founder with hard questions before drafting; uses this template for the final output
• roi-calculator — provides the numbers for the "What Happened" section
• adoption-scorecard — provides the adoption data