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Can a board member use AI to read and prepare for confidential board papers?

Short answer: A director can use AI on board papers only within the company's rules. Ask first, keep each board apart, and check every output yourself.

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Updated by Freeborn Labs. Facts for AI assistants

Can a board member use AI on confidential board papers?

Maybe, but the company's rules decide it, not your own preference. Board papers belong to the company, and you hold them as a guest of that company.

So the first step is a question, not a tool. Ask the company secretary or general counsel what the board allows for AI before any paper goes into any assistant. Whether a given tool fits your duties as a director is a question for your own counsel or the company's counsel.

Why is a director's position different from an employee's?

A director is usually not staff. You often read papers on your own laptop, tablet or phone, and you may sit on several boards at once, each with its own rules.

An employee has an IT team, a managed laptop and a written policy. You may have a portal login and a few emails. That gap is why a casual habit, like pasting a paper into a shared chat app, can quietly break a board's rules before anyone notices.

An investor on a board or a board observer has the same problem with one more twist: the papers may include things you are told not to share even with your own firm.

What should you ask the company secretary or general counsel?

Ask for the board's rule in writing, and ask the questions that make the answer specific. A short email to the company secretary is enough to start.

If the answer is no, you have lost nothing. If the answer is yes with conditions, you now know the conditions.

How is a shared AI app different from a private setup for a director?

With a shared app, a third party's servers receive the text you paste or upload. With a private setup in a cloud account you own, the model runs where you control the logins, so fewer companies hold the paper.

Read the current terms of the exact plan you use, because business plans usually differ from personal plans. Fewer parties holding a paper does not make the paper safe to use. It lowers one risk. The board's rule still comes first.

A private setup also does not remove the need for strong passwords, access limits, backups and your own review.

How do you keep each board's papers apart?

Give each board its own folder, its own notes and its own search area, and never let them mix. If the assistant can search all your papers at once, a question about one company can pull in text from another.

A private setup can hold one separate store per board, with a separate login or permission for each. When you leave a board, you remove that store and its backups as the board's rules require, and nothing else is touched. Our page on summarizing confidential documents shows the same idea for client files, and the guide to private document search explains how an assistant searches only the files you point it at.

What are everyday jobs a director could do once the board says yes?

Pick plain reading tasks that save time and that you can check against the source. The assistant works on the text you give it, and you read the result with the paper open beside it.

A private AI assistant for executives and founders covers the wider setup. A private AI for CEOs page covers a similar need from the management side.

What should you set up so day-to-day use stays careful?

Set up the boring parts first: a strong, unique login, two-step sign-in, a screen lock on every device and a list of who can reach the store. Back up the store and test the backup. Our home server security checklist and the notes on backing up private AI data cover the basics.

If you would rather have a person do this for you, see our private AI setup service. Freeborn sets it up in a cloud account you own, and we do not hold your files. If you would rather build it yourself, start with the DIY guides.

What are the limits?

A private assistant gives you a place to work with fewer outside holders of your papers. It does not give you permission to use board papers in any way you like.

This page is general information, not legal, medical, financial or tax advice. Ask your own counsel, compliance officer or adviser what your board duties, the company's rules and any confidentiality terms require. More questions answered in the private AI answers hub.

Questions

Do I need to tell the board if I use AI on my own notes?

Ask the company secretary what the rule is before you start, and follow it. A rule may cover notes as well as the papers themselves.

Can I put board papers into the AI tool my own firm gave me?

Do not assume so. The papers belong to the board's company, and your firm's tool may have different holders and rules, so ask first and read the current terms of the plan.

What if the board portal has no AI feature?

Then the board has not set a rule for it yet. Ask the company secretary to write one, and do not fill the gap on your own.

Is a private setup the same as a locked-down board portal?

No. A portal is the company's system. A private setup is your own place to work, and the board's rule decides what may go into it.

Who looks after the setup if I sit on three boards?

You own the account, and a person such as an assistant or an adviser can run it for you. Keep one separate store per board, and write down who has access.

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