“AI will not replace humans, but leaders who use AI will replace those who don’t.” -Ginni Rometty (Former CEO, IBM)
The leaders of today’s organizations are navigating one of the most complex leadership landscapes in history. I am reflecting this week on the ways Artificial Intelligence (AI) mirrors one very important way we think about Emotional Intelligence (EI). Both are powerful sources of information, but neither should dictate instructions.
When I do Emotional Intelligence work with Senior Leaders to enhance executive presence, I talk about how emotions are information not instructions. Once this is deeply understood, we are free, as humans, to explore the gifts our emotions reveal. They tell us something about what’s happening inside us or around us, but they don’t determine our course of action.
The same is true for AI. AI offers us information at a scale and speed beyond what we can process alone. It can reveal patterns, suggest options, and surface insights that might have been inaccessible before its arrival. AI cannot assume the executive responsibilities of discerning trade-offs, setting a human centered visions and strategic priorities, exercising judgment under uncertainty, and leading with the values that define an organization’s culture and legacy.
The Gift of AI
Just as anger can reveal injustice and joy can fuel resilience, AI carries gifts for leaders when approached consciously. It can uncover patterns and trends that help us anticipate challenges and opportunities, streamline repetitive or analytical work to free our teams for higher-value creative and strategic thinking, and provide fresh perspectives on complex problems. Beyond these, AI can enhance decision agility by simulating scenarios, surface hidden correlations that broaden understanding, and highlight possibilities. It can even amplify collaboration by organizing and synthesizing insights across teams and domains.
Why a People-First Strategy Matters
Fear of AI often stems from the idea that it will replace people. But the real opportunity is AI can make people more effective, more human, and more capable of doing the work that matters most. Just as leaders build Emotional Intelligence by naming, noticing, and managing their inner experience, they must also build “AI Intelligence,” the ability to integrate AI wisely and strategically without surrendering agency.
Please read last month’s article and reflect on the questions there before moving to this next set of questions.
Five Strategic Questions to Shape Your People-First AI Strategy
1. What strategic insights is AI surfacing, and where does your uniquely human judgment as a leader create leverage?
AI can reveal patterns, trends, and opportunities at a scale no human could process alone. How are you framing your input and interpreting the output to make high-stakes decisions that reflect your values, priorities, and vision for the organization?
2. How can AI expand rather than diminish your capacity for insight, creativity, and strategic influence?
Just as leaders use Emotional Intelligence to perceive hidden dynamics, motivations, and unspoken signals within teams, AI can help you detect subtle patterns, anticipate trends, and explore scenarios that would otherwise not be available. Where could AI free you and your teams to focus on the uniquely human work of shaping strategy, inspiring innovation, and cultivating organizational potential?
3. What is the “gift” AI is offering your organization right now?
AI carries gifts we are unearthing every day: speed, perspective, prediction, and the ability to model complex possibilities, just to name a few. Are you being intentional about recognizing those gifts and putting them to use strategically, amplifying the strengths of your people and your organization?
4. How are you balancing risk and resilience in your AI adoption?
Even as AI opens new frontiers, it introduces uncertainty and complexity. How are you acknowledging potential risks while cultivating resilience in yourself, your teams, and your organization?
5. How are you ensuring that people remain the central force in shaping outcomes during this transformation?
AI can amplify capabilities, but culture, engagement, and human potential remain the differentiators of lasting success. How are you deliberately designing decisions, processes, and strategies to keep human intelligence, judgment, and relationships at the center of organizational impact?
The Leadership Imperative
By respecting the power of AI, and intentionally keeping people at the center of everything, leaders create organizations that are adaptive, purpose-driven, innovative, and equipped to thrive amidst complexity bigger than anything we have likely experienced in our lifetime. I will end with words from Aristotle: “For the things we have to learn before we can do them, we learn by doing them.” The time is now…
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