Trusted to Lead with Steve Hasker

🎥 Jun 09, 2026 📺 Diligent ⏱ 3m

Trusted to Lead is a series featuring directors who have earned credibility in the boardroom, sharing the judgment and experience that help boards lead through complexity when there is no playbook. In this episode, Steve Hasker discusses generative AI, risk and boardroom decision-making, explaining why AI must be embedded across board conversations spanning strategy, talent, efficiency and risk oversight. He also shares practical advice for new board members on preparing thoroughly, asking strong questions and finding their voice early in the boardroom. Explore the full Trusted to Lead serie...

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About Stephen Hasker

Stephen Hasker, President and CEO of Thomson Reuters, has recently discussed the company's focus on generative AI and its financial performance. On the Q1 2026 earnings call, Hasker reaffirmed the company's full-year outlook for organic growth of 7.5% to 8% and a margin increase to approximately 40%. He noted that Thomson Reuters raised its annual dividend by 10% for the fifth consecutive year and repurchased $262 million of shares in the first quarter. Hasker stated that the company has "more than $9 billion of estimated capital capacity through 2028" for inorganic opportunities and has deployed about $2.5 billion in acquisitions focused on its "big three" segments of law firms, tax accounting firms, and corporations. In public appearances, Hasker has emphasized that generative AI will be "as transformative as any of those disruptions" he has seen in his career, including the PC and internet. He described Thomson Reuters as serving "fiduciary grade AI" to professionals who "have to be right," combining content, data privacy, and support to ensure products do not hallucinate. Hasker argued that AI must "permeate every conversation" for board members, spanning strategy, talent, and risk oversight. He also noted that the company's proprietary "Thompson model" is "outperforming the frontier... models for certain legal tasks," providing optionality for future product development. Hasker advised new board members to prepare thoroughly and ask well-researched questions to find their voice early.

Source: AI-verified profile updated from Stephen Hasker's recent appearances. Browse all interviews →

Transcript (4 segments)

✨ AI-enhanced transcript with speaker attribution

Stephen Hasker0:04

So first and foremost, we serve professionals that we believe will be transformed by AI. To some extent they already have been, but we really think generative AI will be an entirely new level of disruption. I mean, the way I think about it, in my career I've seen the advent of the PC on every desk, the advent of the internet, mobile, social, cloud. Our view is that generative AI, over a period of years, will be as transformative as any of those disruptions.

AI is not a separate conversation for board members. You know, it's not sort of we let's reserve a little bit of time on the schedule every other board meeting or every board meeting to talk about AI and its influence. It really needs to sort of permeate every conversation in our view. Whether it's in terms of the talent strategy, the broader overall growth strategy, how you're thinking about cost and efficiency and applying it internally, product strategy, the whole thing. And so that's what we're trying to do.

You know, and I think in my view, boards have been dealing with similar risks and increasing risks for decades. And so most tenured board members are pretty well versed, and most boards I think are pretty well versed at sort of understanding what it means to identify and sort of oversee risk management. And so I think the other thing is just to make sure that those existing pre-existing frameworks are strong and that you run the sort of potential influences of AI through those.

I remember my first board meetings quite well, both in our time at McKinsey where I'd be asked to sort of present to a board, or I think, you know, more relevant to the question, sort of when I first joined a public or private board, and walking in with sort of a reasonable amount of terror thinking, you know, they're about to find out that they've made a recruiting error here. You know, I don't know as much as they think I know and I'm not going to be as helpful as they think I'm going to be. But the thing I figured out pretty quickly was ask a few well-researched questions which are on point and help progress the board's thinking and conversation. And anybody can do that. You know, you don't have to be a tenured board member with lots of experience to figure out what are some good questions to ask. And I think once the rest of the board have heard your voice and got a sense for how you formulate questions and the kinds of things you're pushing on, it just, you know, I think it helps everyone, including yourself, just to get settled in and start to be a bit more productive.