Ryan Nowicki Stewart (CEO, Pennant AI): AI, Proxy Voting, and the Future of Governance

Corporate governance requires a technological overhaul as institutional investors struggle to manage the increasing complexity of proxy voting and shareholder engagement. Pennant AI addresses this by building an AI-native "world model" for governance, designed to consolidate fragmented workflows and replace reliance on legacy proxy advisory firms. While institutional investors currently spend minimal time on manual oversight, AI-driven tools can automate routine voting tasks, allowing human judgment to focus on critical decisions like contested M&A or executive compensation. The shift toward AI also provides public companies with better visibility into shareholder perspectives, particularly as governance structures evolve during private-to-public transitions. By integrating institutional memory and bespoke internal frameworks, these new platforms offer a more efficient, data-informed alternative to the traditional, static proxy advisory services that have long dominated the market.