Imagine going from saying, “AI has no place in steel manufacturing”… to declaring, “It is my expectation that you use AI” across 6,000 employees — all in under six months.

That’s exactly what happened when one leader flipped the switch. At first skeptical, he was convinced AI couldn’t touch a 65-year-old steel company. But a persistent senior leader put the right books in his hands — Co-Intelligence and The AI-Driven Leader — and suddenly, curiosity turned into conviction.

Within months, he vulnerably admitted, “I wasn’t an expert, but I led anyway.” That courage gave his people permission to act. Pilots surged: predictive inventory, machine reliability, contract analyzers, and more — initiatives powerful enough to potentially move stock price. And through it all, he kept a people-first philosophy: “Work-life balance matters as much as stock price.”

Today’s AI-Driven Leader is Geoff Gilmore, President, CEO, and Director of Worthington Steel.