For humanity, governments, and companies to navigate the upcoming wave of AI disruption, all actors will need to play a part. However, within the field of AI governance there is currently little focus on the role that investors can play, but there is an opportunity for this to increase.1
To address this gap, the Oxford Martin AI Governance Initiative organised a series of six roundtables with 62 institutional investors alongside 60 interviews. The investors were from 12 countries spanning Europe, North America and Asia. The attendees were predominantly from stewardship teams focused on public equities, as well as some fund managers, and asset owner participants had a view across all asset classes. Consequently, the report is mostly focused on public equities, but the conclusions are still relevant to other asset classes.
The roundtables discussed two questions: what real-world aims and specific actions can investors pursue, and what would help support them in doing so? The report aims to catalyse debate on the role investors can play and identify new initiatives and resources to support this.
