Boards are not short of risk information, but many are questioning whether it is delivering the assurance they actually need. Expectations around accountability, resilience and internal controls continue to rise, while the risks boards face are becoming more interconnected, fast-moving and harder to anticipate.
New research from the 2026 What Directors Think survey, conducted by Diligent Institute and Corporate Board Member, highlight a clear tension in today’s boardrooms. Directors recognise the importance of strong risk oversight, yet many believe their current governance processes need to evolve to support better judgement and more forward-looking decision-making. The challenge is not awareness, but execution.
That gap matters. As economic uncertainty, regulatory change and AI-driven transformation converge, boards are increasingly judged not only on what they oversee, but on how effectively risk and assurance inform strategy.
Risk oversight is rising, but confidence is lagging
Directors are unequivocal that risk oversight deserves more attention. Eighty-four percent report strengthening their approach to scenario planning over the past five years, expanding the range of scenarios considered and spending more time stress-testing assumptions. This reflects a broader recognition that historical performance is no longer a reliable guide to future risk.
Despite this progress, confidence remains uneven. A sharp economic downturn ranks as the single greatest risk facing organisations in 2026, while nearly a third of directors say they are most concerned about risks they have not yet imagined. To improve oversight, directors point to the need for more frequent and structured risk discussions at the full-board level, clearer linkage between risk oversight and strategy, and better use of technology to support insight.
AI illustrates this tension clearly. While deploying AI across the business is a top strategic and capital allocation priority, boards widely acknowledge that AI and technology-related regulation is both the compliance area likely to demand the greatest attention in 2026 and the most underestimated compliance-related risk. This places pressure on boards to oversee not just adoption, but governance, controls and accountability.
From information overload to actionable assurance
A recurring theme in the survey is that boards do not necessarily want more data; they want better data. More than half of directors say they do not often receive real-time information between meetings, and many want board discussions to focus more on the future rather than retrospective reporting. Even where directors believe meetings are broadly balanced, there is a clear appetite for sharper, more decision-relevant insight.
For audit committees and finance leaders, this has direct implications. When risk reporting is not clearly connected to strategy, risk appetite and resilience, assurance risks becoming a compliance exercise rather than a governance tool that supports judgement.
Practical priorities for boards
The research points to several actions boards can take to sharpen oversight without adding to agenda pressure:
- Clarify ownership and accountability for risk and internal controls, particularly for non-financial areas such as technology, data and workforce matters.
- Rebalance board time toward judgement, reducing presentation-heavy agendas in favour of discussion and challenge.
- Improve the quality and integration of risk information, including technology and AI-related risk, using dashboards and analytics that highlight patterns and trade-offs.
- Link assurance explicitly to strategy and resilience, testing how risks and controls perform under stress.
Taken together, the findings suggest that effective risk and internal control oversight is becoming a core governance capability. Boards are being challenged to move beyond periodic reporting toward a more integrated, forward-looking model of assurance — one that strengthens resilience while supporting strategic ambition.
For those supporting boards, the opportunity lies in helping translate risk information into insight, enabling boards to spend less time absorbing information and more time exercising judgement.
What Directors Think
To explore the full findings from the What Directors Think 2026 report and what they reveal about board priorities for the year ahead, visit the Diligent Institute.
