Leading through disruption—strengthening governance in technology, media and telecommunications

In 2025, companies in technology, media and telecommunications (TMT) continued to operate at the center of disruption. Boards found themselves thrust into dealing with high-profile controversies over M&A and consumer backlash, along with supply chain, tariff, and labor supply issues roiling every industry. As generative AI (GenAI) accelerates shifts in cost structures, competitive barriers, and value creation, many TMT companies—particularly in software and hardware—are reassessing the durability of their core business models.

• Technology companies are reassessing the resilience of their business models as AI accelerates change, while also using the technology to boost productivity, innovate, and prepare for shifting regulatory expectations.
• Telecom providers are pursuing strategic dealmaking to scale their capabilities and stay resilient amid regulatory and competitive pressures.
• Sports, media, and gaming companies are rethinking how to engage fans and audiences through immersive, AI-enabled experiences.

Against this backdrop, boards are being called to lead transformation that, for some companies, is increasingly about reassessing strategic relevance, capital allocation, and operating models. This heightened level of engagement demands sharper governance, agility, and vision in the next year and beyond.

Directors in our 2025 Annual Corporate Directors Survey are more concerned than ever about their board colleagues underperforming, as external pressures mount and governance demands intensify. A record-high percentage of directors surveyed now think someone on their board should be replaced.

TMT directors echo these refreshment concerns, but their reasoning for why boards are not replacing underperformers is more pointed than in other industries. Many tell us that their boards are too collegial and don’t have good board assessment processes in place that would help drive change and improvement. Additionally, these boards are shifting the focus of their agendas with AI and talent rising while climate change is seemingly falling off their radar.

In 2025, 81 directors serving on boards of TMT public companies participated in our survey, accounting for 13% of all respondents. Here’s what we learned:

This year’s survey results suggest a tipping point, with the majority of directors across industries now saying someone on their board should be replaced. TMT directors share this sentiment but specifically expressed increased concerns about collegiality, board leadership’s unwillingness to deal with underperformance, and an ineffective assessment process. The first two reasons speak to underlying culture issues on boards, while a weak board assessment process can significantly stifle board refreshment.

More than two-thirds of all directors say their boards’ assessment process is effective, but many seem unsure what actually makes that process meaningful. TMT directors have the lowest perception regarding their assessments’ effectiveness, largely attributable to the lack of sufficient follow-up after the assessment and the lowest percentage of directors saying their boards evaluate directors at an individual level. Evaluating individual contributions as well as following up on outcomes and recommendations from the assessment are critical elements to truly having an effective process.

AI is the number one oversight area that directors say they need to spend more time on over the next year. TMT directors see AI as an even greater focus area, with nearly eight out of ten saying the technology gets too little boardroom attention. Not unexpectedly, that’s the highest among all industries and nearly double the percentage of TMT directors who said the same in our 2024 survey.

From customer interaction to workforce management to strategic planning, AI-based applications are already key to competitiveness and becoming only more so, even as the scale and scope of risks rise in tandem. For many TMT boards, particularly in software, this increased focus is not only about governing AI responsibly but about confronting whether existing products and pricing models remain viable as AI compresses margins and accelerates risk. With TMT leaders looking to use GenAI to ramp up efforts to create new business models and unlock fresh value streams, it’s unsurprising so many TMT directors want to spend more time on smart technologies.

Overseeing a company’s top talent has long been a core board responsibility: Directors are responsible for hiring and firing the CEO, evaluating top executives’ performance, approving leadership succession plans, and keeping the talent pipeline flowing to execute company strategy.

With skills issues—from widening skills gaps in critical areas to shifting visa policies—boards across industries are dedicating more time to talent management. TMT board agendas are no exception: 70% of directors say their boards discussed talent management at every meeting in the past 12 months, up markedly from 52% in 2024.

CEO succession rates held steady at 11% in the Russell 3000 in 2025, but the technology industry was slightly above that at 12% with the highest number of succession cases among all industries—prompting TMT boards to have to spend more time on succession planning. Likewise, as megadeals in the industry increased in 2025, the need to thoughtfully integrate talent and culture is likely another driver of this heightened focus for TMT boards.

By contrast, most TMT boards are eschewing discussions of climate change altogether, with only 30% of directors saying their boards even discussed the topic at all in the last year. Yet sustainability considerations remain closely tied to the industry’s AI ambitions, particularly as growing demands for data centers intensify pressures related to energy generation and infrastructure.

Beyond energy, the infrastructure required to support AI—from advanced semiconductors to specialized hardware—has further heightened boards’ exposure to geopolitical risk, trade policy shifts, and supply chain concentration, especially in East Asia. For both hardware companies and AI-dependent platforms, resilience and access to compute are increasingly core governance and strategy issues. Together, these dynamics suggest that TMT boards may need to revisit how they engage on some of these topics as part of their broader oversight agendas.

In a fast-changing world, boards need to be agile in their decision-making and curious in their ability to innovate. Oversight areas for boards are expanding, requiring more time and focus from directors. Having vigorous board assessments can help the board adapt and remain fit for purpose. Disruption in the TMT industry is a given, but the AI frontier presents both opportunity and existential risk. For some companies, the challenge is not simply how to govern AI but whether their current strategy, operating model, and supply chain dependencies are resilient enough to compete in an AI-intensive, geopolitically fragmented environment. Is your board prepared?