Last week, I sat down with Marissa Afton, Partner & Head of Global Accounts at Potential Project Company, and honestly, her research findings about the impact of AI on company leadership were astounding.
Here's the deal: Out of 100 CEOs and CHROs across a range of industries, only 8% feel confident in their ability to embrace AI while managing its risks. But wait— 70% of leaders would actually prefer to have AI make decisions for them rather than making those decisions themselves.
My first thought? That can't be right. But then Marissa broke it down for me. These leaders aren't being lazy—they're completely overwhelmed. The sheer volume of critical decisions hitting their desks every day is insane, and there's barely any time left for the kind of deep, strategic thinking that real leadership requires.
All this comes from the research that she and her colleagues published in a book by Harvard Business Review Press, "More Human: How the Power of AI Can Transform the Way We Lead," in which she and her team interviewed 100 CEOs and executives across a range of industries.
Here's what really struck me: The leaders who are going to crush it in the AI era won't necessarily be the biggest tech nerds. They'll be the ones who figure out how to blend AI's capabilities with the aspects that make us uniquely human as leaders.
So here's my question for you: Are you part of that confident eight percent, or are you still trying to figure this whole thing out?