Looking Ahead to 2026

At this time of year, The Effective Board gets out its crystal ball and tries to anticipate priorities for boards in the year to come. We try not to be too gloomy – though that can be hard!

So what do we think will need to be firmly on the 2026 agenda? Like it or not, it is going to be a year of AI (whatever that comes to mean) so we don’t apologise for several of our points falling into that category. Both the opportunities and the risks are high, and the strategic governance mechanisms need to keep up. And striving to stay on top of cyber won’t be any less fraught. So 2026 will be a bumpy, difficult to navigate road!

Here we set out how we see the board agenda for the coming year – with suggestions on what you should do and what you should avoid. But before we reach that point, there’s a holiday period upon us. So Season’s Greetings to you all with very best wishes for 2026!