McKinsey's 2025 Corporate Governance Report: What Boards Must Prioritize

McKinsey & Company's 2025 Corporate Governance Survey, drawing on responses from over 800 board members across 40 countries, identifies three dominant themes: artificial intelligence governance, environmental and social accountability, and leadership pipeline resilience.

Nearly 70% of board members report that their organizations lack sufficient AI expertise at the board level, a gap that is increasingly viewed as a fiduciary risk. Meanwhile, investor pressure on ESG disclosures is intensifying, with regulators in the EU and SEC rolling out mandatory climate-related financial reporting requirements. On succession, the survey found that only 44% of boards have a robust emergency CEO succession plan — a figure unchanged from 2022, suggesting systemic inertia despite high-profile CEO departures in recent years.