I am super excited and honestly a little nervous about the how the leadership landscape is changing with artificial intelligence. Over the next three to five years, AI won’t just change what leaders do, it will redefine how they need to think, show up, and lead others through ambiguity, disruption, and reinvention. From a personal perspective, AI is shaping how we set up Career Pivots and how we work, so much so that we have given our AI a name.
What’s becoming increasingly clear is that AI is no longer a technical curiosity delegated to IT or innovation teams. It’s a cultural, strategic, and human leadership imperative. And while many leaders are intrigued, I’ve also observed fear, fatigue, and even quiet resistance among those unsure how to keep up or how to stay relevant.
Leaders don’t need to code, but they do need to become more comfortable navigating an environment where machines are thinking, employees are experimenting, and the rules of success are shifting.
From cautious curiosity to cultural catalyst
In the last 18 months, I’ve seen the full spectrum of leadership responses to AI. One CEO I worked with confessed privately that his team knew more about ChatGPT than he did, and it left him feeling exposed. His instinct was to shut down AI discussions in meetings for fear of looking out of touch. With coaching, he reframed this discomfort as a growth opportunity. If this is you, why not set up a reverse mentoring session with a graduate or an analyst who can show you how they use AI. Moments like these not only demystified the technology it can set a new tone of curiosity and humility across the organisation.
Another Leader I coached was overly confident in her existing success. “We’ve been innovating without AI for years,” she said, brushing off team members who wanted to trial AI tools for content development and decision support. If this is like you, be aware that if you don’t change within six months, high-potential staff may pack up and move to competitors who offer more AI-forward environments. This is where you need to embrace adaptive leadership.
What I have come to learn is that your relationship with AI tends to mirror your relationship with change. Leaders who lean in, experiment, and empower others will outpace those who cling to what they know.
Why AI fluency now matters more than ever
As leaders, we don’t need to know how to build a large language model. But wedo need to know what one can do.
As I tell my clients, AI fluency is about mindset as much as it is about knowledge. It means being able to ask informed questions, make ethical decisions around automation, and think systemically about the impact of AI on talent, productivity, and purpose.
In coaching conversations, I often challenge leaders to consider: Are you asking AI to make you faster at old tasks, or to help you reimagine how value is created in your organisation? There’s a huge difference.
According to IBM’s Global AI Adoption Index, 44% of executives say a lack of leadership skills is one of the biggest barriers to AI integration. Not a lack of engineers. A lack of leaders who understand how to lead in an AI-augmented world.
From individual tools to organisational transformation
I’ve observed four rough stages that organisations move through with AI. In the early days, it starts with individuals experimenting, an executive assistant using Notion AI to create agendas, or a finance analyst using Co-Pilot to clarify regulatory terms.
From there, teams begin to share learnings and develop collective confidence. That’s when we see pockets of integration into workflows—such as marketing teams using AI to A/B test messaging or HR teams trialling AI-assisted performance review summaries.
But transformation only happens when AI becomes embedded in how the organisation thinks, hires, measures, and strategises. That takes leadership not just of tools, but of people and purpose. It takes redesigning roles, rethinking incentives, and creating a culture of continuous learning.
The Four Stages of AI Use to Full Organisational Transformation
| Stage | Description | Leadership Focus |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Exploration | Individuals experimenting with tools like ChatGPT, Notion AI, Copilot | Learn, test, reflect. Model curiosity. |
| 2. Integration | Teams begin to incorporate AI into workflows | Support upskilling. Encourage experimentation. |
| 3. Optimisation | AI becomes embedded in core processes (e.g. hiring, marketing, product dev) | Rethink KPIs, decision rights, accountability. |
| 4. Transformation | Entire org shifts structure, strategy, and culture for AI-native ways of working | Lead with vision. Realign talent, purpose, and culture. |
Source: Deloitte 2024 Human Capital Trends
What could derail even the best leaders?
Many leaders don’t fail in the AI era because they’re not technical. They fail because they let fear, ego, or inertia override learning and experimentation.
One of the biggest derailers I’ve seen is perfectionism. Some leaders want the “perfect” use case before taking a single step. Others fall into the trap of past success—believing what worked before will carry them forward. My favourite quote from Marshall Goldsmith “what got you here won’t get your there” has never been more relevant.
Another common misstep is underestimating how quickly your own team may outpace you. I’ve coached leaders who felt blindsided when junior staff led the way on AI use only to realise later, they could have amplified that innovation if they’d embraced it sooner.
AI ready leadership starts with you
Leadership in the age of AI is not about having all the answers. It’s about asking better questions, staying open to challenge, and empowering others to shape the future with you.
I’ve created a practical checklist to help you assess where you are on your own AI leadership journey from mindset to systems to team readiness. Email me and I will shoot it to you. You can use this for yourself, with your executive team, your coach, or even in your next strategic offsite.
The leaders who thrive in the next three to five years won’t just be the ones who understand AI. They’ll be the ones who understand how to lead humans through an AI transformed world with courage, humility, and a relentless focus on growth.
