Artificial intelligence has moved beyond experimentation. It is increasingly influencing how organisations operate, invest and make decisions, bringing new questions about value creation, governance, resilience and the role of people.
Our latest C-suite Barometer shows that AI has entered a new phase. Business leaders are no longer focused solely on where the technology can be deployed. The conversation is increasingly about the value it creates, the capabilities organisations need to build around it and the risks they need to manage along the way.
Against this backdrop, Forvis Mazars in Romania brought together seven board members from technology, banking, capital markets, energy and financial services, alongside Forvis Mazars leaders, to explore what AI means when viewed from the boardroom. Their perspectives, combined with findings from our global C-suite research, reveal a shift from AI adoption to AI accountability and value creation.
The question facing leaders is no longer simply “How can we use AI?”, but “Where can AI create meaningful value, and what does it take to sustain it?”
The C-suite Barometer 2026 mid-year insights point to an executive agenda that remains growth-oriented, while AI becomes increasingly embedded in investment and transformation decisions. AI is now among the external trends with the greatest influence on businesses, while organisations are beginning to measure its impact through productivity, customer experience and financial returns.
 of C-suite executives remain positive about growth. |
 of leaders say AI has made their teams more productive. |
 report returns of up to 10% on AI investments. |
 measure AI returns through productivity increases. |
Taken together, these findings point to an important transition: AI adoption is no longer the finish line. The focus is shifting towards measurable business value.
“Perhaps surprisingly, and possibly also because of the current geopolitical context, CEOs around the world say they are fairly confident about 2026 and growth prospects. The same is true in Romania. Although confidence has declined compared with previous years, it remains relatively stable with regard to development prospects for 2026.”
Răzvan Butucaru Partner, Financial Services & Advisory Leader
As AI becomes mainstream, the challenge for boards is increasingly one of focus. Organisations may have dozens of potential use cases, but deploying more technology does not necessarily translate into greater business impact.
This is also visible across the industries represented in the white paper. Andrei Dudoiu, CEO, Seedblink, argues that investors are moving beyond the “AI-native” label and want to understand the problem a company solves and the value it creates. Vladimir Pojer, Deputy CEO, BRD, points to the potential of AI to expand personalised banking services while accelerating complex processes. Adriana Matache, CEO, Allianz-Țiriac, highlights speed, fraud detection and customer experience as more meaningful objectives than headcount reduction. Ionuț Sas, SVP Finance, UiPath, describes a future of autonomous organisations in which AI, automation and workflows operate together, within rules defined by people.
The common thread is clear: AI initiatives need to connect to a revenue opportunity, a cost driver or a critical decision-making process. Their contribution should be assessed through operational, economic and strategic outcomes, not through adoption alone.
"Perhaps the most important question boards should ask is not ‘Where can we use AI?’ but ‘What capabilities do we need to build today to remain competitive tomorrow?"
Florence Sardas Partner, member of the Executive Committee
The accelerating availability of AI tools creates another challenge: distinguishing genuine business value from technology adoption for its own sake. Organisations should start with the outcome they want to achieve and then determine which technology, or combination of technologies, can deliver it. AI may be part of the answer without necessarily being the whole answer.
This approach becomes particularly important as organisations move from isolated pilots towards solutions embedded in core workflows. It also requires controlled testing, clear rules for data use and human verification before solutions move into production.
"First, we define the desired outcome, then we select the most appropriate technology to achieve it”.
Dino Ebneter Country Leader
As AI becomes embedded in business processes and contributes to decisions, responsibility cannot remain solely with technology teams. Boards need to understand why AI is being introduced into a process, what data it relies on, how risks are assessed and where human oversight remains necessary.
Adela Jansen, Independent Non-Executive Board Director, sees this as an extension of the board’s existing governance responsibility. Boards need to ask how technology connects with business judgement, whether controls are sufficient and how AI-related risks should be tested. Adriana Matache brings the same principle into insurance, where inaccurate recommendations or automated errors can create immediate operational and reputational consequences. For both perspectives, human validation remains central when decisions affect customers, employees or financial outcomes.
Governance is therefore more than a compliance exercise. Done well, it creates the conditions for organisations to scale AI with greater confidence, particularly as the EU AI Act brings risk classification, transparency and accountability into the operating model.
AI dependency introduces a new strategic dimension. As organisations build processes around global platforms, models and infrastructure, boards also need to consider what happens if access to a critical technology changes or disappears. Radu Hanga, President, Bucharest Stock Exchange, connects AI implementation with geopolitics and asks how an organisation would respond after investing heavily in a technology that later becomes inaccessible. He also calls for greater transparency when AI contributes to materials used in corporate decision-making. From an investment perspective, Andrei Dudoiu warns that a business model built around a single AI platform may be exposed to dependencies it cannot control.
The issue goes beyond software. Sorin Elisei, Board Member, OMV Petrom, highlights the physical infrastructure behind AI, including computing power, energy, water and data centres, and the competitive implications of access to those resources. He also stresses that expected efficiencies need to be weighed against implementation costs, information security and the continuing need for specialist validation.
AI transformation is ultimately organisational transformation. As automation takes on more repetitive tasks and AI becomes integrated into decision-making, organisations need to reconsider skills, roles, workforce planning and the interaction between people and technology. Cătălina Călinescu, Partner, Outsourcing - HR & Payroll, Forvis Mazars in Romania, and Florina Andra Ilie, Senior Manager, HR & ESG Advisory, Forvis Mazars in Romania, identify four connected priorities for HR:
"In the AI era, HR’s role is no longer simply to manage people, but to design how people and technology will create value together. The organizations that succeed will not be those that implement the most AI solutions, but those that build a sustainable model of collaboration between people, technology, and business."
Cătălina Călinescu Partner, Outsourcing - HR & Payroll
Their perspective is that workforce planning can no longer rely only on organisational charts and headcount. It must also consider capabilities, reskilling, upskilling and scenarios for how work will change. The organisations generating sustainable value from AI will not necessarily be those implementing the greatest number of solutions, but those that align technology, people, processes and governance.
AI is already influencing productivity, customer experience, investment decisions and operating models. Its longer-term implications extend further, touching governance, workforce strategy, infrastructure, resilience and the foundations of competitive advantage.
The perspectives gathered in AI in the Boardroom, together with the Forvis Mazars C-suite Barometer 2026, suggest that the next stage of AI will be defined less by how quickly organisations adopt the technology and more by how deliberately they turn it into sustainable business value.
Discover the perspectives shaping the boardroom conversation on AI.
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