10 must-have leadership skills in today’s AI age.
With the growing AI-driven business environment, it’s becoming even more essential for company leaders to leverage this capability for advantage to make innovation more rewarding by getting more benefits from information services and the associated data to further improve creativity, operational processes, customer experiences, business outcomes, etc. Leaders who embrace this mindset are not only prepared for change but are actively seeking it. However, success in today’s modern work environment isn’t just about “ thinking ahead “ – it’s also about being willing to pursue a different approach to problem-solving and being flexible in the face of challenges.
Because of this, the most valuable leadership competencies in a world increasingly shaped by AI include being –
1. A HUMBLE AND CONTINUOUS LEARNER
Leaders need a mindset of continuous learning and humility to lead in this era. With the increasing rate of change and the pace of innovation as well as rising expectations, means no one has all the answers. As such, success now also includes being curious, experimenting with new tools (ie: Agentic AI, XR / Immersive technologies, etc.), building open ecosystems, utilizing synthetic data, exploring emerging technologies, etc. With this, to achieve success, it’s important to be good at the different forms of innovation that deliver real results in the short term as well as doing disruptive innovation to expand opportunities, relevance and revenue streams, to evolve the business model, etc. – to better manage change and mitigate risk.
2. FLEXIBLE FOR TRANSFORMATIONAL CHANGE
Organizations grow faster when their leaders embrace transformational change. Today that means utilizing AI to fast track adding value and effecting change in products, services and processes to meaningfully improve outcomes, better position the organization to attract and retain top talent, have competitive advantage, etc. For this to occur, leaders need to create a culture that celebrates the pursuit of opportunities, innovation, and change – instead of fearing it or maintaining the status quo. Encourage people to explore and test ideas, take strategic risks, and learn from their mistakes. This isn’t a new idea for a fast-growing company and those who appreciate the unique advantage with an organization that is agile, entrepreneurial and opportunistic.
3. FORWARD THINKING WITH A WILLINGNESS TO PIVOT
AI is one of the many elements changing the modern workplace. With greater use of AI and other technologies, it’s essential to leverage these powerful capabilities for advantage, to expand opportunities, become a more responsive organization, adopt new processes and new ways of working – at the office, when working remote, upskilling or adding capabilities, etc. To maximize the benefits, a specific leadership trait would be “ preparedness ” to facilitate change with the willingness to pivot as well as update strategy and plans.
4. A NURTURER OF TEAM DEVELOPMENT
Help employees understand their value to the organization by recognizing their work could be replaced or augmented by technology. Great leaders understand what’s changing and how their employees’ work will be impacted. Help them focus on skills like critical thinking, strategy, communication, and creating great User experiences – human qualities that can’t be replaced or replicated by technology.
5. ACCOMPLISHED AT VALUE CREATION AND BUSINESS INNOVATION
While AI can automate tasks, generate insights, and even make decisions – leaders realize there is a need to interpret, contextualize, and guide AI with creative problem-solving, reasoning and emotional intelligence, as well as respect for human and cultural values and ethics. This is important to ensure people are responsible for outcomes plus better position the organization to innovate for impact and achieve the desired objectives. Further, with AI capabilities being impressive and familiarity and trust in AI growing as people utilize the technology more, are getting better at asking questions / prompting, become proficient at reviewing, assessing merit and editing AI reports / results, etc. Building on this to ensure accountability for results and the AI report resonates with the reader / user – good leaders recognize the importance of having a competent “ Human in the Loop “ to make the final calls around context, subject matter expertise, and human considerations – the things that machines struggle with today. This is an example of Adaptive Intelligence with the ability to know how to look at things and do what’s needed to get the desired outcomes – a critical competency for leaders to enable the organization to create significant new value and meaningfully improve outcomes with new digital capabilities to expand relevance and opportunities, increase and grow revenue streams, attract and retain top talent, have a lucrative business model and bottom line, etc.
6. HUMAN-CENTERED ADAPTABILITY
Adaptability is the most valuable leadership trait with the increasing rate of change in the business landscape and a world being shaped by AI. As technology rapidly evolves and User expectations continue to increase, leaders must be more entrepreneurial and flexible, plus be good at exploring, asking questions, and learning fast, plus be able to pivot with new strategies to identify and make good on opportunities as well effectively integrating AI into the organization to make innovation more rewarding, better serve Customers, reduce costs, add more value, etc. – if the goal is to better manage change and meaningfully improve outcomes. Fundamentally, Adaptable Leaders are open-minded, foster innovation, empower teams to explore and embrace change while ensuring processes, plans, AI, etc. are producing the desired results and the organization is realizing important benefits based on a human-centered approach to decision-making.
7. ACTIVE LISTENER
Since AI is accelerating change, leaders must be accomplished at listening, learning, and effecting change – while staying rooted in practical and ethical decision-making. Accomplished leaders have strong look ahead with the ability to integrate technology and improve processes to achieve strategic objectives, while being responsible and respecting human values and dignity – to ensure that culture and innovation are strengthened to better position the organization for success going forward. In conjunction with this, it’s critically important for leaders to be “ active listeners “ to help with assessing project objectives and scope, show support for new initiatives, asking good questions to help with idea or concept development, to established project go / no criteria, determining success metrics, etc.
8. CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE ADVOCATE
Leaders must ensure that every decision revolves around delivering real value to – customers, partners, and internal users. This is needed because the complexity of balancing operational efficiency and rapid innovation can cause people to lose sight of why they’re innovating in the first place. With customers at the core, leaders can navigate these challenges, prioritizing solutions that adapt to their evolving needs – while driving personal and organization growth as well as long-term trust and loyalty.
9. CURIOSITY AND IMAGINATION
Curiosity is a very important leadership trait in an AI-shaped world because the applications are limited only by imagination and ingenuity. Iterating with Rapid trial and error, very much like a design sprint, are an increasing differentiator to identify, test, develop and deploy at scale new digital capabilities, products and services stemming from Incremental, Adjacent and Disruptive Innovations. With this, recognize future use cases will not resemble current practices since “ Curiosity “ is an increasing factor in creating them !
10. AN AUTHENTIC, TRANSPARENT COMMUNICATOR
As AI increasingly contributes to making innovation more rewarding, automating and performing tasks, improving operational efficiency, optimizing decision making, plus shaping human behavior and interactions – people will crave genuine, transparent, and human-centered leadership more than ever. While AI can process data, improve personnel productivity and effectiveness, and help in achieving business results, it can’t by itself build trust, inspire teams, or create a sense of purpose. Since these qualities come from leaders who are authentic by communicating openly, staying true to cultural values, and prioritizing human considerations and connections.
SUMMARY
Suffice to say, winning going forward, is going to be different than what it took in the past. While many of the above leadership skills have been in play for a long time, AI has raised the bar on their importance.
Leaders with the appropriate mindset, knows how to look at things, has the attitude, openness, and ability to learn quickly, plus is digitally oriented will inspire people and better position their organization for success.
Since this is not the case in many enterprises today, what’s the plan to fast track developing these competencies ?
For further insights on this and other topics to make innovation more rewarding, see – other articles at – www.cail.com/BI .
April 29, 2025 Fast Company / CAIL CAIL Innovation commentary
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