Stewardship in Practice
Engaging on Artificial Intelligence (AI) – Responsible Use and Oversight
AI is moving rapidly from experimentation to implementation. For us as investors, the opportunity is significant, but capturing its long-term benefits will depend on how responsibly companies develop and deploy the technology.
29 September 2026
Our stewardship focus extends beyond the technology itself. We consider the environmental, social and governance implications of AI, including energy consumption, workforce transformation, data privacy, cybersecurity, and corporate accountability. We use company engagement as a tool to test how these issues are being managed in practice.
Across GAM, investment teams are assessing AI from different perspectives, with the focus increasingly shifting beyond the companies developing AI, to the businesses adopting it.
For us, AI is therefore not simply a technology story.
What we expect from companies
The pace of AI innovation means regulation may not always keep pace with technological developments and may not provide clear answers in every circumstances. Our engagements therefore examine whether companies have effective board and management oversight of AI, clear accountability and controls that are proportionate to the way the technology is developed or deployed.
This includes integrating AI-related risks into corporate risk management and considering issues such as data privacy, cybersecurity, intellectual property, inaccurate or biased outputs and appropriate human oversight. Intesa Sanpaolo, for example, has introduced a “Responsible AI by Design” process for high-risk systems, with safeguards covering human oversight, transparency, and fairness throughout the system lifecycle1.
The approach we take will vary by company and sector, but we believe governance should evolve alongside the technology and remain proportionate to the risks and opportunities involved. Companies may have access to similar AI models, computing capacity, and software. What could differentiate them over time is how effectively they manage the consequences of deployment.
Importantly, we do not expect boards to become AI experts. We do expect them to have sufficient understanding and access to relevant expertise to identify and oversee the material risks and opportunities AI presents for their business.
Stewardship: from policy to practice
Companies need to create an environment in which employees can challenge technology when something goes wrong, risks can be escalated and management can slow deployment where appropriate. These characteristics can be difficult to capture through conventional ESG data, but they can be highly relevant to business resilience.
For us as responsible investors, stewardship provides an opportunity to look beyond disclosures and understand how companies’ policies and principles translate into practice. Two of our 2025 company engagements illustrate how AI governance can take different forms.
Read more about our approach and engagement in our 2025 Stewardship Report.
Environmental | The physical footprint of AI
AI is becoming an increasingly important driver of electricity demand. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), global data-centre electricity consumption rose by 17% in 2025, while consumption from AI-focused data centres increased by 50%. The IEA expects data-centre electricity use to nearly double from 485 TWh in 2025 to around 950 TWh by 2030, highlighting the growing importance of energy availability, sourcing and infrastructure resilience for companies adopting AI2.
From our investor perspective, the implications extend far beyond the technology sector. The growing energy demands of AI raise questions not only about access to reliable power, but also about capital allocation, emissions and resource use, factors that may increasingly shape companies’ long-term investment prospects. Our May 2026 engagement with Reliance illustrates how these considerations are beginning to play out at company level.
Social | The workforce and customer transition
The GAM European Equities team’s analysis, ‘European banks: The new AI winners?’3, has highlighted the potential for AI to reduce costs and transform the workforce in sectors such as banking, while their analysis of humanoid robotics considers the possibility of more profound changes to labour-intensive industries.
For companies, managing this transition through workforce planning, reskilling and employee engagement will be increasingly important. Where automation affects employment, how companies respond can influence employee trust, reputation, and their broader social licence to operate. The impact also extends to customers.
As AI becomes more embedded in products and services, accuracy, transparency, and appropriate human oversight will also be important to maintaining customer trust.
Our focus is not on opposing technological progress, but on understanding how companies manage its wider impact and whether they are building the skills, trust and resilience needed to capture its benefits over the long term.
AI through different investment lenses
AI will not affect every company in the same way. Its material implications will depend on each company’s business model and strategy.
The key considerations will vary by sector, from automation and the future of work in industrials, to customer protection in AI-enabled banking, accountability in technology, and the energy and capital intensity of AI infrastructure.
For us as investors, this reinforces the importance of assessing AI not as a standalone ESG theme, but as an emerging investment and stewardship factor within the context of each company.
Investment Directors from across the GAM platform share their complementary perspectives:
Looking ahead
AI could change both the opportunity set and risk profile of companies across portfolios. The companies that benefit most may not simply be those that adopt AI fastest, but those that can scale innovation while managing its wider ESG implications.
We seek to understand where AI could create material risks or opportunities, how companies are responding, and whether their governance and broader ESG practices are keeping pace. This is where stewardship matters. Through engagement, we seek to challenge assumptions, encourage greater transparency, and support companies in strengthening their approach as the technology evolves.
At GAM, bringing together the perspectives of our investment managers and Responsible Investment team allows us to consider AI from both sides of the equation: the opportunity it creates and the responsibilities that come with it.
The defining question of the next phase of AI may not be who adopts it first, but who can turn it into lasting value, while earning the trust of the people, communities and stakeholders affected by it.