Senior businesswoman discussing new ideas in staff meeting. Group of multi-ethnic business people in a briefing at the office.
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Industry to industry, CEOs are betting big on artificial intelligence. Corporate America is bullish on AI disrupting the workforce and transforming the workplace, and it’s not just Silicon Valley saying it.
C-suiters are talking the walk, but are they walking the walk? Most CEOs, CFOs, and senior executives are using AI less than an hour a week. Nearly 30 percent aren’t using AI at all.
This is a missed opportunity, and slightly surprising given our widespread AI bullishness. For executives who value data, data, and more data, there is no better technology than AI. It allows decision-makers to process far more signals than any executive team historically could—more numbers, crunched in less time. From internal data and external market research to earning calls, social conversations, and customer feedback, facts and figures can now be synthesized in near real time, giving business leaders a much faster read on shifts in markets or consumer behavior.
Running countless simulations, AI can map out virtually every possible scenario—from an economic recession to a customer backlash. And it is all documented: AI systems are now integral to institutional memory, turning basic artificial intelligence into advanced organizational intelligence. Today’s AI offerings can effectively act as a searchable brain for the organization. Instead of knowledge living in slide decks, inboxes, or an individual CEO’s head, it has never been easier for leaders to query years of documents, research, and customer feedback to figure out what went right (or wrong), and predict what might happen next.
And yet, many CEOs are still hesitant to embrace AI at work.
Why? Because too much of the job needs to be done the old-fashioned way. We don’t work in some sterile simulation; we work in a dynamic office, surrounded by real people.
When it comes to judgement in ambiguous moments or crisis situations, AI isn’t necessarily the best “man” or “woman” for the job. AI can model outcomes, but CEOs still have to decide when data is incomplete or conflicting, and how to respond. The most difficult leadership moments—which call for quick strategy pivots, culture decisions, acquisitions, layoffs, or culture decisions— still rely on human judgment.
The human component also relies on, well, human judgement. Striking deals, forming partnerships, hiring senior executives, and navigating boardroom dynamics are still deeply social endeavors. They rely on high levels of emotional intelligence. Credibility, empathy, and trust are built through relationships, not algorithms.
Companies and other organizations move in a certain direction because people believe in that direction. We establish a preferred outcome, followed by a process to achieve success. AI can help analyze markets, but it can’t authentically articulate why the company exists and why it should keep existing—the “why” in addition to the “what” or the “when.” Nor can it rally employees, investors, and other stakeholders around a mission.
AI is not replacing passion and teamwork and human ambition, and it probably never will. But there is no excuse for CEOs avoiding one of the most powerful technologies in history. The best CEOs will be the AI adopters who don’t lose sight of their humanity along the way.
