AI challenges us in all areas, but few as much as in the realm of leadership. The good news is that we already have the tools to take on this challenge, and they have nothing to do with code or technological solutions.
Sometimes, a comment we hear becomes that "Eureka moment" that allows us to better understand our reality and even project our future. The words of a Spanish telecommunications executive were that moment for me, when, over a typical executive lunch, he said: "Artificial intelligence (AI) requires us to rethink organizations from scratch." On my way home, his words kept coming back to me, always associated with one question: How can we rethink our companies if we don't even know how to measure the impact AI might have?
Today, it seems we only know how to measure its impact negatively: the supposed jobs it will eliminate (more than 85 million by 2025)1, the tasks it will erase from the map (more than 40 percent by 2050)2, or the industries it will put out of business (at least five)3. However, we cannot project with the same accuracy how to take advantage of this new technology. We lack data and experience.
Therefore, we are even less sure how to lead organizations and the people within them into this unknown territory. There is no doubt that a new form of leadership will be necessary, one that leaves behind the comfort of three-year strategic plans, annual sales projections, or even recognition policies based on experience. But we will have to start doing it without references.
Socrates, with his "I know that I know nothing," was already, unknowingly, preparing our ancestors for the start of modern Western culture. Now, AI challenges us in the same way: it does not allow us to approach it with the concepts and tools we handle but demands a new way of thinking about ourselves in it and with it. The great philosopher taught us that acknowledging ignorance is the starting point for the search for true knowledge, beyond the constraints imposed by uncertainty and fear of the unknown. However, unlike those who gathered to debate in the agora of Athens in 400 BC, in the future, we will be compelled to interact with an intelligence that seems human but is not.
For this reason, our leadership must be capable of connecting the human with that artificial intelligence, giving rise to what we could call "AI Leadership," characterized by the continuous pursuit of knowledge. Knowledge is generated within a collaborative process where facts (AI data) merge with visions (human experience). The leader must facilitate the conditions for this synergy to occur. His main function will be to promote humans' predisposition to learning, and AI will help him with data to deactivate their biases.
In other words: the new "AI Leader" does not dictate, he asks questions. His main task, like in the Socratic method of dialectics, will be to encourage his teams to question and reflect. This dynamic of questions and dialogue represents a path toward a collaborative, inclusive, and participatory future. It is a path that leads to an era where leadership is exercised with a reflective capacity that values constant adaptability over mere experience, following Socratic teachings based on two pillars: ethics and humanism.
"You cannot live a good life without being a good person," Socrates said. Therefore, the new leader must ensure that AI and its technologies are used ethically and enhance humanistic values within the organization. Otherwise, we risk the machine taking the reins. Not because it is smarter than humans, but because it is more efficient and cannot distinguish between what is morally right and what is not, what is beneficial for humans and what is not.
Impact on leadership models
In our current society, we usually distinguish between at least four leadership models: autocratic, transformational, transactional, and participative. Without a doubt, AI will impact each of them and require adaptation:
Autocratic Leadership: This model is based on the decisive power granted to the leader. In the face of AI, it has everything to lose. It has been efficient in environments where quick decisions are crucial, but given AI's ability to analyze available information faster and more accurately than any human, the autocratic leader can only change his approach. "Knowledge begins in wonder," Socrates said. In the era of AI, the autocratic leader must foster that wonder through his ability to ask questions of AI. Only in this way will he maintain control of the final decision, based on ethics and humanism.
Transformational Leadership: This leader focuses on inspiring and motivating followers to change their expectations, perceptions, and motivations. Artificial intelligence will enable this to be done more assertively and precisely. Through AI, the transformational leader will better understand the needs and capabilities of his teams and thus personalize the approach to change based on a deeper and more analytical understanding, following the classic Socratic approach of "know thyself."
Transactional Leadership: This leader operates according to a system of rewards and punishments. AI will allow him to adjust both dynamically in real-time, based on predictive analysis and historical behavior. However, it also risks violating the ethics that prevent us from manipulating people, instead of guiding them.
Participative Leadership: In this case, the leader includes team members in decision-making. Although he listens to different opinions and invites various viewpoints, the final decision rests with him or her. This model stands to gain the most in the era shared between humans and machines. With AI assistants and collaborative tools at their disposal, the participative leader can facilitate a richer exchange of ideas, based on sophisticated data and analysis, providing each participant with a comprehensive overview so their contribution is meaningful.
Whatever style we imagine for our organizations, the common point will be that the leader of the future must navigate the present with one eye on long-term strategy and the other on the real opportunities that data confirms in the short term, merging human wisdom with machine precision. Always keeping ethics and human well-being at the forefront of everything they do.
A Matter of Culture
Now, for this "AI Leadership" to take root in organizations, they also need to rethink their dynamics and culture, which is the set of explicit and implicit agreements, customs, and norms that govern how a company operates. The experience of recent years teaches us that future work environments demand a culture based on transparency and collaboration.
In an increasingly global professional environment, in organizations working across different time zones and geographies, old-style control no longer works. Now, it's not about controlling the time worked but about meeting objectives set based on trust. In this environment, AI will act as both a mirror and a lens, allowing the organization's beliefs and values to be contrasted with its goals.
Hierarchies and notions of success and failure will lose weight in favor of a team-centric approach. The result will be a culture where productivity is not sought at the expense of employee well-being but sought to ensure they can give their best, ensuring a healthy organization that can reinvent itself according to market needs.
In the future, humans will remain the protagonists of organizations, but alongside AI. And we will depend on "AI Leadership" to achieve the balance between humanity and technology, between wisdom and experience, between ethics and efficiency.
The Socratic "AI Leadership" is a call to lead not from the top of the power pyramid but from the center of a circle of shared knowledge and ethics. It is the recognition of an odyssey toward a work culture that aims to amplify the best of human beings in conjunction with artificial intelligence. In that future, the leader's role is vital, as a facilitator and guide, capable of mobilizing hybrid teams and cultivating an environment where every decision is based on technical capability while prioritizing the common good, as Socrates already anticipated.
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By Oscar Velasco, Managing Partner of OLIVIA Spain's transformation division.
