#AGS25 highlights: Beyond the Horizon

Board directors were urged to avoid distractions and to focus on foundational duties at the Australian Governance Summit 2025: Beyond the Horizon. The summit, which returned to Sydney after three years in Melbourne, was a resounding success, with over 1,800 attendee registrations in-person and virtual. The main themes were how to navigate change, uncertainty, risk and opportunity across the governance landscape in areas such as artificial intelligence and geopolitics.

Save the date for #AGS26: 10-11 March 2026.

(With extra reporting by AICD writer and editor Shelley Dempsey.)

The theme of this year’s summit was ‘Beyond the Horizon’, and the unknowns of future governance were explored by a stellar line-up of 55 speakers and panellists tackling thought-provoking scenarios in many different areas.

Hot topics included the forthcoming Australian election, so-called ‘woke’ diversity and ESG policies, why ASIC sees super funds as the “poster child” for poor governance, how PwC is faring on the long road back to rebuilding trust and where key areas of legal risk lie for directors.

How can boards navigate artificial intelligence?

Australia has 650 AI companies and is seen as a leader in ethics and governance and as an early adopter of technology ranging from “the good old days” to more recent cloud data applications, the summit was told.

“AI is already all around us. It’s all-pervasive and the impacts are huge. The question is how do you harness opportunities and address the risks of AI at the same time?” Ng Kuo Pin, CEO of technology services firm NCS asked the AGS audience.

Boards must master two key “balancing acts”, he said. Weighing the benefits of AI innovation with the need for what is appropriate should be the first consideration.

The second is the need to balance AI adoption with “digital resilience”, a term that captures various elements of technological architecture, including cybersecurity and infrastructure.

“You can only run as fast in AI adoption as the state of your digital resilience,” he explained.

Enterprises which may have launched AI apps too quickly and publicly when they weren’t ready, or when they had poor data governance, or operational weaknesses, have experienced low digital resilience.

Boards should align themselves with management on AI strategy but should think about the purpose of the company when deciding how AI may be useful, he said. “The board should encourage and promote AI adoption and ask the right questions.”

A survey carried out by NCS and IDC late last year of 1750 organisations in 16 countries revealed some were deploying AI too fast due to insufficient digital resilience, with six per cent in the “critically low” adoption and resilience category.

Only seven per cent were labelled successful “gamechangers.”

His firm had experienced recent success in implementing AI usage including at call centres hosted by the Singapore Ministry of Manpower where it had halved the number of after-call follow-ups and achieved a 95 per cent transcription accuracy.

It also condensed 20-minute phone conversations into 100-word summaries​.

Another video AI use case implemented at an Asia Pacific miner with 12,000 staff in seven locations had reduced workplace safety incidents by 83 per cent.

He outlined the major advantages and disadvantages of AI:

Opportunities​

• Tasks completed in a split second
• It can access the whole world’s knowledge and is always learning​
• Unlike humans, it operates 24/7​
• It can seamlessly integrate with machines and humans​.

Risks​

• AI hallucinates and can’t be relied upon to be 100 per cent right ​
• If a mistake is made, it’s not accountable
• Subscriptions can be expensive​
• It’s still evolving and prompt results can be uneven.

Customer threat

In a follow-up panel session, former NRMA chair Tim Trumper GAICD warned, “AI won’t take your job, but someone using AI will take your customers.”

In a later session focused on risks presented by the increased use of data, Wendy Stops GAICD, a non-executive director with Coles, said the organisation’s robust governance frameworks include a Data and AI Council.

“[They] have in place the mechanisms to make sure they’re really questioning the use of the data, how it’s going to be used and whether it’s the right thing to do to go forward,” she said.

Australia and the Trump effect

US President Donald Trump is “the most unorthodox US president in decades” and the changes he is engineering on a world level will create a much more volatile international security and economic environment, Michèle Flournoy, Former US Under Secretary of Defense and co-founder of WestExec Advisors told the summit in a virtual session broadcast from the US.

“I believe we are witnessing the end of the post-World War Two order and a fundamental redefinition of US leadership in the world,” she told delegates. “The main challenge for Australia and Australian companies is the uncertainty in the current geopolitical and geo economic environment, and I think unfortunately, that’s going to continue for the foreseeable future.”

Australia appears to be one of the few US allies that is so far not in “the crosshairs” with President Trump, at least for the moment. However, in the current volatile trade environment, Australia does risk becoming “caught” between the US and China.

There's also a danger that high tariffs will cause high inflation and eventually a recession in the US which could impact Australia.

“There's a risk that Trump will incur a deal with China that will leave Australia fully extended and having to support a ‘tough on China’ policy that the US will champion.”

Australian boards should navigate this “incredibly volatile environment” by making geopolitical risk a regular agenda item and assessing key areas of exposure. Developing contingency plans or playbooks of possible scenarios is also crucial to protect people, investments and IP.

Directors must be futurists

AICD chair Naomi Edwards FAICD urged summit attendees to be courageous, to look beyond the horizon to the new challenges they are bound to face.

“As directors, it’s vital that we become futurists. The systems and ways that we do things today in our companies are extremely unlikely to be fit for purpose in the next five or 10 years.”

There’s no way directors can add value to businesses by just reading board papers, attending board meetings and going on the odd field trip, she added.

“You cannot be a competent director today if you are not AI fluent, in the same way that we upskilled ourselves around cyber 10 years ago. You also cannot be a competent director if you put board collegiality or ease ahead of asking the extremely tough questions, particularly that very hard question of whether past decisions are still serving us well today.”

She warned that boards need to have a very acute ability to sense a shift in operating environments and to orchestrate rapid pivots well in advance of when they are needed. “We now all need to have much more time outside meetings, understanding and being immersed in the organisation’s strategic and operating landscape, particularly the technology landscape.” 

Boards need to employ both oversight and foresight and to consider what new thinking is needed to thrive. “If your board is in a knowledge or belief set bubble, you must pull yourself out of it,” she warned, posing the following questions to the AGS crowd.

• Does your board understand the sentiment and buying behaviours of our Chinese and Indian migrant communities?
• Does your customer interface excite Gen Z users or does it infuriate them?
• Are your highest performing staff ground down by the bureaucracy of your policies and procedures?

John Mullen AM: Beware of red flags

Standing firm in the face of divisive issues and dominant personalities who may sway decision-making is crucial, said Qantas chair John Mullen AM during his keynote address.

Noting Qantas was “starting to get its mojo back” after “two difficult years”, Mullen urged directors to beware “all-powerful CEOs, no matter how brilliant they may have been in the past.”

He also cautioned against “founders who should have stepped back”, along with “ineffective chairs, board factions, big egos and a toxic board-versus-management relationship”.

“All are corrosive and greatly increase the risk of disastrous failures of governance,” he said.

Mullen, who also chairs Brambles and Treasury Wine Estates, warned against a wholesale rollback of diversity, equity and inclusion policies (DEI) in the wake of Trump’s election.

A narrow focus on improving diversity through gender parity is “missing the point”, and achieving greater diversity should not be viewed as a box-ticking exercise. “These days, the old girls’ club is just as active as the old boys’ club and so many ASX directors come from the same background, irrespective of whether they are male or female,” he said.

“To me, diversity means somebody coming from a totally different background with different values, different experiences and different beliefs.”

While some in corporate Australia had overstepped the mark by “enthusiastically” adopting some of the “more radical or woke initiatives”, mainstream DEI initiatives improved the performance of businesses. “Don’t be radically woke, but don’t be radically anti-woke either,” he said.

Scrutiny for poor behaviour: ASIC chair Joe Longo

Overall, “tumultuous times” are making it more difficult for directors to meet their obligations, said ASIC chair Joe Longo during his keynote address.

Nonetheless, he flagged greater scrutiny for those engaged in “poor personal behaviour” because it often turns into the type of serious corporate misconduct at the heart of several recent scandals.

“Not all poor personal behaviour leads to governance issues, but governance issues allow poor personal behaviour to thrive,” he said.

Excessive regulatory burdens can hinder compliance, create inefficiencies and make enforcement more difficult, he added. In response, ASIC has formed a Simplification Consultative Group, comprising representatives from business, consumer advocacy, and industry bodies, including the AICD, the Business Council of Australia, and the Consumer Action Law Centre.

ASIC expects to release a discussion paper later this year to make regulatory guidance more accessible and practical for directors.

He criticised Australia’s $4.1 trillion superannuation sector for its failure to properly service millions of members, branding it the poster child for bad governance.

AustralianSuper is being sued by ASIC for failing to process thousands of death benefit claims "efficiently, honestly and fairly" between July 2019 and October 2024. The lawsuit comes just months after ASIC sued industry super fund CBUS over delayed death and disability payments to over 10,000 members.

Cutting red tape

Reducing regulation and other forms of “red tape” was a topic frequently raised at #AGS25. Business Council of Australia CEO Bran Black argued that the country needs “to be very strongly focused on a deregulation agenda”, given the increasingly competitive climate in the US. “We need to put our skates on because we’re going backwards,” he said.

However, no-one should expect massive changes overnight, said former Queensland premier Anna Bligh, now CEO of the Australian Banking Association. “It turns out in government that simplification can be very complicated. One person’s red tape is another person’s environmental or consumer protection so you need to tread very carefully and get the balance right.”

The continual evolution of workplace laws and regulations meant directors needed to stay up to date with developments, said Laura Bacon GAICD, Senior Policy Adviser at AICD.

Herbert Smith Freehills partner Miles Bastick agreed, noting wage compliance and psychosocial risk had been key areas of focus in recent years.

Rigotti calls for governance principles review

AICD CEO and MD Mark Rigotti MAICD told the summit that the organisation had recorded another successful year, awarding 697 scholarships to NFP, First Nations and leaders with a disability, among others. The scholarships advance the careers of aspiring and established directors through access to world-class courses, he added.

The institute’s in-house B2B offering, which provides board and executive team training, had also grown by almost 30 per cent in that time. “While the support we provide individuals with governance training is critical, we can have an even greater impact when we support whole boards or executive teams to enhance their governance,” he told the summit.

On the advocacy front, the AICD had also contributed to input on revisions to the ASX Corporate Governance principles. “It’s critical that we get the principles right and they don’t have negative ripple effects across the economy.”

The principles had dominated governance headlines over the past few weeks. Consultation on a revised edition had been shelved when the council that oversees them could not agree on a final version.

Rigotti said the AICD is calling for a reset and independent review as the principles have morphed over the years into “quasi-regulation”. He believes any new version should contain three things.

• The scope of the code must be up for debate and focus on core governance issues.
• Shareholders must be central to board considerations.
• The value of independent directors must be reinforced as a key governance measure to ensure management teams do not operate unfettered and that minority shareholder rights are protected.

The discussion comes at a time when organisations are creaking under the weight of regulation, and red tape needs to be reduced, he added. The AICD will soon release further details on what it thinks needs to be done to ease the problem and is calling for the next federal government to commit to a 12-month freeze on new regulations. “We also think it’s time for a review of the Corporations Act, which now sits at a whopping 3700 pages.”

The AICD’s Director Sentiment Index found that 61 per cent of directors surveyed regard compliance obligations as a main factor impacting their board’s risk appetite.

Culture as a killer: PwC chair John M Green

In a time of flux, companies could still bolster their sustainability, ethical standing, and long-term viability by heeding ESG considerations, particularly culture.

“Culture can either make or kill a company,” said John M Green FAICD, independent chair of the PwC Australia governance board. He highlighted the firm’s governance overhaul in the wake of the damning 2023 Switkowski review, noting the “three Cs” (curiosity, collaboration and challenge) that preface every meeting. This affords directors ample space to constructively challenge decision-making.

“I’m a big believer in not leaving a meeting with any question unanswered, because that could be the question that blows your company up,” he said.

Positive culture also promoted other ESG initiatives such as emissions and waste reduction and resource management.

Roy Green AM MAICD, former Port of Newcastle chair, noted “culture eats strategy for breakfast” as he explored the transformation of a coal-dependent port to a diversified operation with a clean energy precinct and container terminal.

“We have regular strategy days [which] involve the board and the management together,” he explained. A culture of high performance, commitment and engagement encouraged forward motion in the face of setbacks.

“If you've got a resilient group of people who believe in what you’re doing, you can get there in the end,” he declared.

Should NFP directors be paid?

As the US applied a blowtorch to diversity and equity initiatives, a session chaired by Phil Butler GAICD, NFP sector lead at AICD, considered the case for remunerating NFP directors.

Graeme Innes AM GAICD, Central Queensland University chancellor and National Disability Insurance Agency board member, said failure to remunerate directors led to less diverse boards. “By not remunerating NFP directors, we are reducing the talent pool we can draw from.”

Strategy as a steer for growth

Directors play a crucial role in shaping and overseeing corporate strategy to fulfil an organisation’s mission, drive sustainable growth, differentiate it from competitors or attain a host of other goals.

Lisa Chung AM FAICD, chair of Australian Unity, said meeting the challenges of the organisation’s diversified portfolio require both board and executive to be aligned and to take proactive steps to remain “match fit”. This involves the board embarking on a program of personal and group development.

“We used the same consultants who had worked with the senior management team,” explained Chung. “[That] was a great platform to build… authentic trust and relationships [so] you can have some very challenging conversations.”

Boards played an essential role in building and maintaining organisational culture and values as well as developing corporate strategy.

Tracey Horton AO FAICDLife, a director of the GPT Group, described strategy as “the light on the hill”, while values informed how people behaved as they trod that pathway.

“The board's job is to make sure… you’re putting in place the governance around decision-making, so you know your policies, your performance metrics, your award systems… your risk appetite statements [and] your safety targets,” she said.

Horton pointed out this involves adjusting efforts as you gather more information. “You would hope all of those things are aligned and are helping you to achieve your strategic goals and… [sending] you in the right direction.”