Artificial Intelligence (AI) is no longer on the horizon – it is here, reshaping how organisations operate. From automating routine processes to accelerating decision-making, AI is transforming industries at a pace few could have predicted. As AI takes root in the workplace, it’s clear that true AI leadership is less about the technology itself and more about how leaders bring out the best in people.
In a world driven by algorithms, leaders must double down on what machines cannot replicate: empathy, trust, creativity, and the ability to connect meaningfully with others.
Traditionally, leadership has been linked with expertise, authority, and decision-making power. But how AI is changing leadership is profound. Algorithms can now generate reports in seconds, identify patterns that humans might miss, and even suggest strategic moves. This shift means leaders are no longer the sole “keepers” of knowledge. Instead, their role is to create the conditions where teams feel safe, empowered, and motivated to thrive alongside AI.
Harvard Business Review research¹ highlights this shift: while much of the debate about AI has been anxious, new findings show that AI can paradoxically make leaders more human. By freeing leaders from tactical work, AI creates space for them to invest in awareness, wisdom, and compassion – qualities that elevate leadership impact.
The greatest danger with AI is that leaders become seduced by efficiency and overlook the very qualities that make teams successful. Effective AI leadership must focus on empathy, trust, creativity, and connection. Empathy helps leaders understand the human experience of working with new technologies, including fears of redundancy or skill gaps. Trust builds confidence that AI is a tool for augmentation, not replacement. Creativity encourages fresh ideas that algorithms alone cannot generate. And connection ensures people feel seen, heard, and valued in an increasingly digital workplace.
Cognitive, Emotional and Social Intelligence
This is where emotional intelligence and AI intersect. Leaders who balance technical competence with self-awareness, empathy, and relationship management will set their organisations apart. AI may power the systems, but emotional intelligence powers the culture.
Hougaard and Carter¹ describe AI as “an exoskeleton for the mind and heart of a human leader.” Just as an exoskeleton strengthens the physical body, AI can strengthen leaders’ cognitive, emotional, and social powers.
- Cognitively: AI enhances information processing, providing clarity for better decisions.
- Emotionally: it can deepen understanding of employees, offering insights into how best to support them.
- Socially: AI can map team dynamics, highlight risks, and help leaders build psychologically safe environments.
However, AI alone cannot make us better leaders. Without inner human development, AI is like “buying a Ferrari without learning to drive.” The opportunity lies in augmentation – using both AI and human qualities together. For those leaders responsible for shaping culture, leading innovation and driving large-scale organisation change, our Transformational Leader programme is design for you.
Qualities Essential for Leaders in the Age of AI
Research¹ identifies three human qualities that are essential for leaders in the age of AI: awareness, wisdom, and compassion. Awareness is the ability to perceive self, others, and context clearly. Wisdom is the judgement to balance data-driven insights with experience and ethical considerations. Compassion is the intention to lead with care, ensuring people feel respected and valued.
Leaders who cultivate these qualities are far more likely to succeed as AI-augmented leaders. They can ask better questions, provide context for AI-generated insights, and lead with heart while leveraging AI’s speed and scale.
While AI disrupts, it also creates opportunities for leaders to shift towards more people-centred work. By automating routine tasks, leaders can dedicate more energy to coaching, mentoring, and supporting their teams. AI can provide insights into individual learning styles and preferences, helping leaders tailor development programmes. And while AI accelerates problem-solving, human collaboration and creativity bring breakthroughs to life.
The balance is clear: emotional intelligence and AI must coexist. Leaders who invest in the human dimension will not only survive disruption but drive sustainable success.
How Personality Profiling Can Help
In the age of AI, the organisations that will thrive are those investing as much in developing their leaders’ emotional intelligence as in adopting new technologies. By pairing emotional intelligence and AI, leaders can harness the best of both worlds – data-driven efficiency combined with the human insight that unlocks trust, collaboration, and long-term success.
A good example of how EQ skills and personality awareness can fuel innovation comes from Equals Group, a UK-based publicly traded fintech company. According to AWS² its Chief Technology Officer, Andrew “Rew” Phillips, has overseen rapid growth from just six employees to over 450. He credits much of this success to the company’s culture of caring, winning, and empowering employees to innovate. Yet as the business scaled, it became clear that sustaining innovation required more than processes and technology – it demanded a deeper focus on emotional intelligence and leadership.
Although Rew believed his EQ skills were strong, a leadership programme revealed some surprising blind spots. For instance, his natural tendency to quickly “solutionise” sometimes stifled the input of quieter colleagues. By becoming more present, listening without distraction, and asking open-ended questions, he created space for different personality types (especially reflective or introverted thinkers) to share their ideas. This shift allowed hidden insights to surface and create a stronger culture of collaboration.
The outcome was a leadership approach that respected and harnessed the diversity of personalities within the organisation. Some team members thrived in fast-paced brainstorming, while others contributed most effectively after reflection. By adapting his leadership style to these different needs, Rew cultivated psychological safety and trust – two essential ingredients for innovation. As Harvard Business School professor Amy Edmondson’s research shows, when employees feel safe to take risks and voice their perspectives, both performance and creativity flourish.
This is why, at Zestfor, we use Insights Discovery® to help leaders improve their leadership skills in the world of AI. The framework offers a shared language and practical tools (such as the Team Wheel) that help leaders build empathy, adapt communication styles, and recognise how different personality types respond to change. In the context of AI, this is invaluable. Leaders can anticipate how individuals with different “colour energies” might react to new technologies and tailor their approach accordingly. The result is more effective communication, smoother adoption, and stronger collaboration – ensuring that AI is integrated in a way that keeps people at the centre of progress. You can find out about our Insight Discovery leadership programmes here.
Building a Human-Centric AI Culture
Every organisation has its culture, but as AI becomes more embedded in the workplace, leaders need to adapt those cultural foundations to ensure technology enhances (rather than erodes) the human experience. Forrester (2025)³ believes that a culture-based approach to AI must reinforce the understanding, beliefs, practices, and actions that are most necessary to using AI to benefit both the organisation and employees. This is how to build a human-centric AI culture:
Shared Purpose
Traditional Approach: People are united by common reasons for being part of the organisation, creating a shared identity and sense of belonging.
Human-Centric AI Approach: Employees need shared reasons for engaging with AI tools that create belonging within the AI user community.
Behaviour Norms
Traditional Approach: Behaviours are shaped by the actions leaders and peers implicitly or explicitly accept.
Human-Centric AI Approach: Leaders not only model behaviour but also encourage actions that actively drive meaningful engagement with AI.
Rituals
Traditional Approach: Rituals are recurring experiences woven into operations that reinforce the company’s purpose.
Human-Centric AI Approach: Rituals also include recurring experiences built around AI, helping people learn, adapt, and integrate its purpose into daily work.
Artifacts
Traditional Approach: Symbolised by concrete representations (from office design to company branding) that embody values.
Human-Centric AI Approach: Artifacts are tailored to show how AI is integrated and celebrated as part of the way the organisation works.
Six Leadership Skills You Need to Make the Most of AI
The question isn’t whether to use AI, but how to lead effectively with it. According to Warrick Business School⁴ there are six leadership skills essential for thriving in the age of AI:
1. The Experimenter
AI requires a mindset of curiosity and experimentation. Leaders must integrate AI into organisational practices while encouraging teams to learn by testing and iterating. Netflix, under Reed Hastings, used this approach to build its recommendation system. Amazon leverages AI in logistics, supply chain, and customer service. IBM’s Watson uses AI to personalise patient treatment. Each example reflects leadership at the top that embraces trial, error, and learning.
2. The Empathetic Leader
AI sparks fear and uncertainty, particularly around job security. Surveys by Warwick Business School show over half of professionals believe their companies will replace employee roles with AI within a year. This anxiety impacts wellbeing and engagement. Leaders must respond with empathy. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella set the tone by framing AI as an augmentation of human capability, not a replacement. Leaders who listen, acknowledge concerns, and prioritise wellbeing will create trust.
3. The Ethical Leader
AI raises complex ethical questions, from bias to data privacy. Leaders must apply strong values to guide responsible use. Examples include IBM’s AI Ethics Board, Fujitsu’s global AI ethics team, and healthcare leaders who prioritise patient privacy. Training in areas like fairness, transparency, and bias is vital so leaders can anticipate risks and safeguard trust.
4. The Collaborator
AI cannot be implemented in silos. Successful adoption requires cross-functional collaboration between technology, finance, HR, and marketing. According to Forbes, 75% of CEOs report that C-suite collaboration is central to AI strategy. Leaders like Jonathan Lerner at InterVision Systems highlight the importance of bringing diverse perspectives together to anticipate risks and ensure alignment.
5. The Data-Savvy Leader
AI is powered by data. Leaders don’t need to be data scientists, but they must be able to interpret data insights and apply them to decision-making. YouTube’s former CEO, Susan Wojcicki, used a data-driven approach to understand behaviour and optimise growth. Leaders must foster a culture where data informs strategy across the organisation.
6. The Pragmatist
AI leadership also requires balance. Leaders must deliver short-term value for customers while pursuing long-term innovation. Jeff Bezos exemplified this with Amazon’s dual focus on operational efficiency and ambitious innovation. Pragmatism ensures AI strategies remain grounded in customer needs, not just future possibilities.
No single leader can embody all six skills equally. That’s why collaboration within the C-suite – and beyond – is essential. By combining strengths across experimentation, empathy, ethics, collaboration, data literacy, and pragmatism, leadership teams can create AI strategies that are effective, responsible, and aligned with organisational goals.
To succeed, AI leadership capabilities must cascade beyond executives to managers and team leaders. This builds a culture of collaboration, experimentation, and responsible adoption – ensuring employees feel empowered, not sidelined, by AI.
Leaders who embrace these six skills won’t just manage disruption, they’ll create workplaces where AI enhances human potential, innovation thrives, and both people and businesses flourish.
Frequently Asked Questions About AI & Leadership
Final Thoughts
AI can accelerate decision-making and free up time, but leaders must use that time to focus on the uniquely human aspects of work – empathy, creativity, and connection. Recognising personality differences, Creating psychological safety, and holding teams to high expectations together create the conditions where innovation thrives.
To thrive, leaders must embrace a mindset shift: from control to collaboration, from expertise to curiosity, and from efficiency to empathy. As Starbucks’ Chief Learning Officer Brandon Carson puts it: “In the age of AI, leaders are becoming the conduits of what it means to be human at work.”
In short, leadership in the age of AI is not about competing with machines – it’s about excelling at being human. The leaders of tomorrow will be those who combine AI-enabled insights with the timeless skills of trust, compassion, and connection.
The rise of AI is inevitable. The real question is how leaders will respond. How AI is changing leadership is not by replacing humans but by elevating the importance of human skills. The winners will be organisations whose leaders cultivate psychological safety, champion collaboration, and create belonging.