Before the Policy: Developing Academic Leaders and Institutional Capacity for the Governance of Agentic AI

Institutional policies for agentic artificial intelligence are only as good as the leaders and structures that must operate them, yet presidents, provosts, deans, and boards receive almost no systematic preparation for AI governance. This conceptual paper defines the institutional layer of agentic AI governance, explains why senior leaders are its least developed actors, and proposes an institutional AI governance capacity model with three layers: individual governance fluency, structural capacity, and adaptive readiness. Development mechanisms, a board-level readiness diagnostic, and the accountability and ethics of governing the governors are discussed.