The reality: AI adoption has advanced faster than most organizations’ ability to govern it. Leaders are being asked to make consequential decisions about AI before rules, capabilities, and operating models are fully formed. And while many worry they are not moving quickly enough, the greater risk may be moving faster than their organizations can responsibly support.
The challenge, then, is not to adopt AI faster or eliminate all risk. It’s to become more intentional about the systems being built around AI.
Russell Reynolds Associates partnered with EqualAI to better understand those systems. How are organizations approaching AI governance today, which actions are most strongly associated with trust and alignment, and how are leaders developing the literacy required to make increasingly complex decisions about AI?
Our findings reveal AI governance as a key leadership advantage. Leaders who develop AI literacy and clear governing principles now will be better equipped to go farther, faster—safe in the knowledge that they’re moving towards a future they can trust.
91%The share of leaders reporting taking steps to develop, pilot, or fully implement AI in their day-to-day workflows.
| 47%Yet only 47% of leaders say their organization has taken even minor steps towards AI governance.
| 27%The share of leaders who believe that stakeholders understand and reference these AI governing principles.
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Fewer than one in three leaders report high trust in their organization’s AI strategy. CEOs are significantly more confident in their AI strategy than those who are typically responsible for executing it, with only 10% of C-level and 17% of next-generation leaders reporting high levels of trust. This gap suggests an AI governance failure.
AI policies, training, and communication are essential trust building-blocks. However, leaders increasingly see them as table stakes. Those with higher trust in their organization’s AI strategy report a broader, holistic set of actions.
Organizations that have meaningfully moved the needle on leaders’ trust levels placed greater emphasis on strong leadership architecture: qualified technology advisors on the board, a clearly integrated and communicated AI & talent strategy, and visible C-suite accountability & ownership.
Today, leaders are largely left to develop AI literacy themselves: 90% report building their literacy through self-study, while just 34% report organization-facilitated training. That model is unlikely to scale.
Highly AI-literate leaders report greater productivity and work-quality benefits. However, they’re also more than twice as likely as low-literacy leaders to recognize colleagues using AI in ways that put the organization at risk.
The benefits of AI literacy go beyond driving up adoption rates. As AI becomes embedded in more decisions and workflows, organizations need people at every level who can judge outputs critically, understand appropriate use, identify emerging risks, and know when human intervention is required.
AI governance takes time to establish, and waiting for the technology to stabilize first is not a viable strategy. Even as this technology continues to evolve, the fundamentals of strong AI governance are more durable.
Strong governance is leadership applied to AI: knowing where AI is being used, making accountability clear, translating principles into operating practice, creating feedback loops, and building the literacy required to use AI safely and effectively.
To get started, leadership teams can start with four questions:
The organizations that begin building these foundations now will be better positioned to manage emerging risks, strengthen confidence across their workforce, and translate AI adoption into sustainable enterprise value.
This study included a global survey of boards, CEOs, CxOs, and next-generation leaders that measured the ways in which organizations are developing AI governance, literacy, accountability, and trust in their long-term strategy.
Additionally, The Leadership Lab conducted interviews with board members, C-level executives, and next generation leaders to how leaders are evaluating and planning for AI’s long-term implications on talent strategy, succession pipelines, and the future of work. Subject matter experts within RRA and EqualAI advised on survey and interview design, as well as market trends.
Finally, we analyzed data from our H2 2025 & H1 2026 Global Leadership Monitors, RRA’s bi-annual survey that reaches 2700+ leaders globally. Further detail on the AI battery from our Monitor can be found here.
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