5 Critical Skills Leaders Need in the Age of AI

Nearly nine out of ten S&P 500 companies that mentioned AI on earnings calls last year described it in glowing terms, yet most leaders fell back on vague promises of unrealised productivity gains when pressed for specifics. AI pilots are not guaranteed to deliver, employees remain fearful of the technology, and AI projects frequently fail to address how organisations actually work and create value.

This HBR article argues that success in the age of generative AI hinges less on the technology itself than on leadership and organisational transformation. It identifies five critical skills senior leaders need to develop: cultivating AI fluency across diverse networks, redesigning organisational structures to unlock AI's value, orchestrating collaborative decision-making between people and AI, empowering teams through coaching and psychological safety, and modelling personal experimentation with AI to inspire broader adoption.

Read here.

Authors: Herminia Ibarra and Michael G. Jacobides