Lara Bourguignon,
CEO & Executive Director, Entregar Partners
The scramble to make sense of AI is bringing boardrooms and ops leaders closer together
I’ve worked with boards for 25 years and I have seen many trends come and go, but few have had the potential to cause such seismic change as AI.
What feels different this time is that AI is forcing boards to confront how their organizations really operate, not just how they look on paper.
AI is already having a huge impact on boardrooms, as senior executives try and figure out how AI is going to transform their businesses. They are not just interested in using AI to drive efficiency gains and cost savings through greater automation, they want to understand how the technology can help boost revenue and improve customer experiences.
In boardrooms, I am seeing a real sense of urgency, coupled with uncertainty about where AI will actually deliver meaningful impact and how it can be leveraged safely.
What this means for ops
Those goals are bringing the boardroom and ops teams closer together than ever before given that senior executives are recognizing that to truly leverage the power of AI, they need to get a firmer grip on their data. Because that data typically resides with operational teams, there is a greater need to collaborate with ops leaders to ensure operational data is AI-ready.
Secondly, to use AI effectively, organizations need to fully understand their end-to-end operational processes to identify where AI can be deployed to have the most impact.
This is often where strategy meets reality, and where operations move from being executors to becoming critical contributors to direction.
As AI increasingly shapes board priorities, this alignment between boards and operations is no longer optional, it is foundational.
This article was first published in the OpsTracker issue 1 2026. You can download full report here.
Considerations for ops leaders
This is creating an opportunity for ops leaders to really take the lead on transformation. Because ops teams are at the sharp end of those processes, they have first-hand experience of the friction points that impact customers and increase operational inefficiencies in the business. Ops leaders are therefore more likely to have the best ideas on how to streamline or reengineer the way that work is done, putting them in a unique position to help steer how AI is adopted across the business.
This is a shift away from operations being told to transform, towards operations leading and helping define what transformation should look like.
In my experience, this is a departure from previous transformation efforts that have typically focused on front-end customer-facing interactions. This approach meant organizations have often overlooked or attempted to gloss over process wrinkles at other stages of the customer journey once work is handed off to middle or back-office teams.
Boards are now really appreciating the value of engaging with ops teams to uncover deeper insights on the pain points that need to be solved if they are serious about unlocking the potential of AI.
What I am seeing now is a growing recognition that without fixing the E2E client experience (and any previously ‘accepted’ underlying operational issues), AI initiatives struggle to move beyond pilots and proofs of concept.
Working better together
A common challenge I see is that some senior executives may have unrealistic expectations of what is possible with AI. To better manage these expectations, I always recommend that ops leaders focus on having fact-based purpose-driven conversations. The aim is not to dampen ambition, but to ground it in operational reality.
Consider how to succinctly discuss the realities of how AI can be adopted by ops teams in practice, using appropriate data points to illustrate your arguments about what is possible, and what isn’t.
For your AI projects to be a success, closer alignment with management is critical. Regular communication is key to this. For one big transformation program I was involved in, I told the executives that we were going to have a 15-minute huddle at 7.30am every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. They protested that this seemed a bit much, but I pointed out that the team needs to make quick decisions, and that relies on constant dialogue and organizational alignment.
By having those consistent 48-hour catch-ups, we were able to make decisions efficiently, resolve issues early, and keep everyone aligned. Cadence and visibility like this often determine whether AI remains a concept or becomes a real operational capability.
This leadership approach is what makes AI adoption and wider change successful.
You also need to have complete alignment on the end state that you want to achieve – and try to focus on meaningful outcomes rather than dozens of pilots that don’t individually deliver enough benefit to drive broader change. This means being clear on what success looks like, articulating what you are trying to solve for, and then creating a narrative and alignment around those goals for executives and ops teams alike.
Ops leaders are in a unique position to help steer how AI is adopted across the business.
Key takeaways
My number one takeaway from my 25 years of working with boards is this: always deal in facts. If you are having those fact-based, purpose-driven conversations, you can better understand what matters most to board members while also managing their expectations, ensuring everyone across the organization is aligned and driving towards the same goal. Facts take the emotion out of change too – everyone wants to do the best for customers.
As AI increasingly shapes board priorities, this alignment between boards and operations is no longer optional, it is foundational.
To discover more about what matters most in boardrooms, watch the video of my discussion with ActiveOps APAC Managing Director Anna Itsiopoulos at Capacity25 Melbourne.
About the author
Lara Bourguignon, CEO & Executive Director, Entregar Partners with more than 25 years of leadership across Australia’s financial services landscape, Lara stands at the intersection of strategy, execution, and transformation. Her career spans senior roles in finance, superannuation, insurance and wealth, including leadership positions at Plum Financial Services and AMP’s Superannuation, Retirement & Platforms divisions.
At Entregar Partners, Lara leads a team of delivery experts, risk & assurance specialists, change leaders and operational practitioners. Together, they bring to clients not just frameworks, but lived experience in steering complex organizations through change. Lara is deeply committed to practical, sustainable impact. She believes transformation is only as good as its execution, and she is known for staying “hands on” with clients from strategy to delivery.
Outside her executive role, Lara is an active board director and advisor – drawing on her extensive network and insights to support organizations seeking resilient growth.
OPSTRACKER ISSUE 1 2026
As AI, automation, and digital transformation continue to evolve, 2026 will be a year where ops leaders take center stage in driving change. What will differentiate success is the ability to translate strategy into action by aligning people, data, and technology at scale.
In this OpsTracker issue, we explore how operations is leading transformation and hear from some of the leaders making it happen.
OPSTRACKER ISSUE 1 2026
As AI, automation, and digital transformation continue to evolve, 2026 will be a year where ops leaders take center stage in driving change. What will differentiate success is the ability to translate strategy into action by aligning people, data, and technology at scale.
In this OpsTracker issue, we explore how operations is leading transformation and hear from some of the leaders making it happen.
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