5 Ways Leaders Can Utilize AI for Work
Over one-third of senior leaders report using AI several times a week or more—making them twice as likely as individual contributors to use AI at least a few times a week. This gap reveals a critical truth: When it comes to AI, leadership adoption sets the tempo for organizational transformation. In times of rapid disruption, organizations need more than available technology to spur adoption; they need strong leadership.
Key Takeaways:
- Leaders set the pace. AI adoption succeeds when leaders model utilization, communicate openly, and guide teams through change.
- AI amplifies leadership. Used strategically, AI can assist in boosting focus, communication, and productivity. However, AI cannot replace things like human judgment, creativity, and interpersonal relationships.
- Mindset drives impact. Clear strategy, governance, and AI literacy turn tools into real organizational advantage.
Why AI for Work Is a Leadership Priority
Management is efficiency in climbing the ladder of success; leadership determines whether the ladder is leaning against the right wall.
As AI disruption accelerates, organizations are no longer asking whether they should adapt, but how quickly they need to do it. The workplace is at an inflection point. Leaders who delay AI adoption risk more than inefficiency; they risk falling behind culturally, strategically, and competitively.
Now is the moment for decisive leadership—not just to approve new tools, but to lead visibly, experiment, learn, and model AI integration in ways that strengthen clarity, build trust, and accelerate execution.
Disruption Demands Leadership, Not Just Adoption
Leaders can’t think of AI as someone else’s responsibility. Instead, they must own the shift, actively and visibly guiding their teams through it. The most effective leaders are doing three things now:
- Modeling usage: They don’t wait for perfect conditions. Rather, they test AI tools in their own workflows, demonstrate how they use them, and talk openly about both the results and the learning curve. This makes adoption feel safe and real, not imposed from the top.
- Building trust through transparency: Teams are watching how leaders interact with AI. Consistent, intentional use builds credibility and trust. Transparency about what AI can—and can’t—do helps prevent fear, overuse, or misunderstanding.
- Addressing resistance with clarity and compassion: Change brings discomfort. Strong leaders don’t ignore this; instead, they engage in it. They reframe AI not as a replacement for human intelligence, but as a tool that enables people to do their most meaningful work.
It’s not enough to deploy AI tools across departments. Leaders must operationalize AI by embedding its use into team norms, decision-making processes, and performance expectations. Only then does the investment translate into real impact.
This is where leadership becomes a competitive differentiator. Leaders who understand how to use AI strategically and how to guide their teams through the change will outperform those who see it as merely a technical add-on. The workplace doesn’t need more mindless AI use—it needs more leaders who are willing to go first.
Learn how to empower your people to create a future-ready workforce in our new guide, The Human + AI Partnership.
5 Ways Leaders Are Using AI for Work
The most effective leaders use AI to do more than automating tasks. They also utilize AI to strengthen their organization’s focus, clarity, and performance. These leaders leverage AI to enable themselves and their teams to do the highest-value work—the work that only humans can do: lead with empathy and action, think strategically, and execute with excellence. Here are just five ways leaders are using AI at work to increase engagement and improve outcomes.
1. Enhancing Strategic Focus
Leaders are responsible for setting direction, prioritizing what matters most, and responding with agility when conditions change. Yet too often, their time is consumed by manual analysis, slow reporting cycles, and information overload. AI breaks through that noise by:
- Automating data analysis to surface insights that once took hours to uncover.
- Generating reports, summaries, and executive dashboards in minutes.
- Identifying performance trends or operational bottlenecks that might otherwise go unnoticed.
- Supporting scenario planning and risk assessment through predictive modeling and simulation.
Used well, AI becomes a second set of eyes—a way to challenge assumptions, explore multiple perspectives, and sharpen thinking. But it’s not a shortcut to decision-making. It’s a decision-support tool that, when combined with human judgment, creates better outcomes. Leaders who use AI to stay focused on the right priorities at the right time gain a strategic advantage their competitors can’t match.
2. Enhancing Team Communication
One of the most practical uses of AI is enhancing how leaders communicate with their teams, both in real time and asynchronously. Leaders set the tone for how communication flows throughout an organization. AI can help them do so with greater clarity, consistency, and impact. When used with intention, AI tools support clearer internal communication by helping leaders:
- Summarize meetings and 1-on-1s accurately, ensuring key decisions, follow-ups, and action items aren’t lost in translation.
- Write concise team updates that reduce ambiguity and eliminate guesswork.
- Reinforce goals and expectations in written check-ins, project updates, or shift communications.
When leaders model clarity in their communication, they help teams operate with greater confidence and alignment. AI becomes a tool for removing noise and surfacing what matters most. Leaders who use AI to create sharper internal dialogue raise the standard for team execution.
Discover the high costs of confusion and learn to promote clarity with our guide, From Misunderstood to Magnetic: A Leader’s Guide to Clear Communication.
3. Increasing Productivity With Automation
Too many leaders are buried under administrative tasks that dilute their focus. Scheduling meetings, managing emails, following up on low-value tasks—it all adds up. AI automation allows leaders to focus on what matters most. With AI and automation, leaders can:
- Automate calendar coordination, inbox triage, and task tracking.
- Simplify internal processes and workflows that were once manual and slow.
- Create space to focus on strategic work, coaching, and decision-making.
Using AI to offload these low-value tasks isn’t taking a shortcut. It’s making room for leadership. When leaders free themselves from repetitive work, they can model a more intentional approach to time and task management and help their teams do the same. This allows leaders time to drive accountability and build stronger connections.
4. Coaching and Talent Development
Great leaders don’t merely manage—they develop people. They recognize that their long-term success is inextricably linked to the growth, performance, and engagement of those they lead. When leveraged effectively, AI becomes a powerful tool to unlock employee potential and develop future leaders—not because it replaces human connection, but because it strengthens a leader’s ability to act with clarity, insight, and timeliness.
One of the most significant advantages AI offers in this area is heightened visibility. Leaders often lack the real-time insight needed to coach effectively, particularly in large or distributed teams. Adopting AI tools can help leaders to:
- Spot early signs of burnout or disengaged employees.
- Identify skill gaps and growth opportunities.
- Make better-informed coaching decisions.
Beyond awareness, AI is also transforming how leaders support individual development. When organizations make use of AI coaching tools as part of their learning and development strategy, leaders gain access to scalable, principle-based coaching tailored to the unique needs of each employee. These tools help development become a continuous, embedded part of each person’s daily growth journey.
Crucially, AI augments a leader’s ability to be present and supportive. In the end, people don’t leave organizations; they leave leaders who fail to invest in them. AI, when paired with present and intentional leadership, allows leaders to show up with the right message at the right moment, with a deeper understanding of what their people need most.
Discover how to close critical development gaps and transform humanity into your competitive advantage when you download our guide, Elevating Human Skills in the Age of AI.
5. Creating Content and Communication at Scale
Leaders are communicators by necessity, but great leaders communicate with intentionality. In fast-moving organizations, however, this responsibility can become overwhelming. From executive updates and strategic plans to all-hands decks, team emails, and stakeholder memos, the volume and velocity of communication demands can easily outpace a leader’s available time and focus.
This is where AI offers a powerful advantage—not by writing on a leader’s behalf, but by enabling leaders to think, write, and iterate faster, without compromising strategic clarity. Generative AI tools can serve as collaborative partners in the early stages of content creation and enable leaders to:
- Draft strategic presentations, talking points, and reports in record time.
- Prototype new ideas quickly and iterate based on audience feedback.
- Maintain a regular cadence of updates and communications without burning out.
The result is not just increased efficiency. It’s increased agility. Instead of getting stuck in simply reacting to communication demands, leaders can proactively shape the narrative, set direction, and reinforce key priorities across the organization. When leaders don’t have to spend hours formatting slide decks or reworking newsletters, they can invest their energy in refining the message itself by ensuring it inspires action, reinforces purpose, and drives results.
But while AI can streamline the “how,” it can’t replace the “why.” Leaders must still define the message, connect it to purpose, and deliver it with authenticity. When used with discipline and intention, AI allows leaders to communicate at scale without losing clarity, or credibility.
Reveal how leaders can embrace an effective writing mindset and leverage technology to enhance their messaging in our guide, How Leaders Can Communicate With Impact.
Leading the AI for Work Mindset Shift
When you take what AI can bring and combine it with what’s uniquely human, you get hybrid intelligence—a partnership that allows us to think better, make better decisions, and create greater things than either could alone.
Tools and platforms can be deployed overnight, but real transformation takes root only when leaders embrace a new mindset and model it for their teams. This isn’t about chasing innovation for innovation’s sake. It’s about ensuring that AI becomes a lever for trust, clarity, and execution—not a distraction or source of confusion.
To lead this mindset shift, leaders must go first. They must be the early adopters who learn by doing, the translators who turn technical capability into practical application, and the stewards who ensure AI is used ethically and effectively across their organizations.
Set the Example, Then Scale
Teams take their cues from what their leaders prioritize and model, so leaders must embody the AI shift. When leaders are curious, transparent, and consistent in their use of AI, it sends a powerful signal: This matters, and it’s here to stay. If leaders want their people to approach AI with clarity and confidence, they need to show them how by:
- Testing and refining AI tools themselves before expecting adoption.
- Modeling adaptability and curiosity, especially in uncertain situations.
- Sharing openly about what’s working, what’s not, and what’s next.
When leaders lead with vulnerability and vision, they create the confidence for teams to explore, adapt, and innovate alongside them.
Upskill and Empower Your Teams
While many organizations focus on tool training, true AI fluency comes from developing the mindset and capabilities that allow people to think strategically about how AI can support their roles. Teams need more than tutorials; they need context, purpose, and the ability to apply AI to their real work. Leaders should focus upskilling efforts on:
- AI literacy for all roles — Ensure every employee understands what AI is (and isn’t), how it applies to their work, and what it means for their future.
- Use-case thinking — Train teams to identify high-impact, low-risk areas where AI can improve workflows and decision-making.
- Principle-based judgment — Equip people with frameworks to evaluate AI results critically rather than taking outputs at face value.
AI shouldn’t be viewed as a replacement for human contribution; it’s a tool for magnifying it. The goal is not to automate people out of the equation, but to elevate what people do best: lead, think, and create.
Establish Guardrails and Governance
With new tools come new responsibilities. Many organizations are rolling out AI without a clear plan, leading to confusion, overuse, or ethical risks. According to Gallup, while nearly half of employees say their organization has started integrating AI, only 22% say there is a clear plan or strategy in place. This lack of direction is a leadership gap. And it’s one that must be filled with intentional, principle-driven guidance. Effective AI governance includes:
- Framing AI as augmentation, not automation. Make it clear that AI exists to support and amplify, not replace, human judgment and capabilities.
- Requiring human review. Non-negotiable oversight ensures decisions made with AI still align with your organization’s values and standards.
- Establishing ethical guidelines. Address issues of overuse, misuse, and explainability. Provide teams with a framework for when and how to use AI responsibly.
- Fostering critical thinking. Encourage employees to ask, “Does this make sense?” AI should sharpen discernment, not dull it.
Strong governance builds trust. When people know what’s expected and what’s allowed, they move forward with confidence instead of hesitation.
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Evaluating AI Work Tools
Before deploying any AI tool at scale, leaders must ask a critical question: Does this help us do our most important work better? Adoption for the sake of novelty leads to waste. Intentional adoption leads to results. Leaders should evaluate AI tools through four key lenses:
- Real ROI — Does it create meaningful time savings, clarity, or better decisions?
- Empowerment, not over-reliance — Does it enhance critical thinking or discourage it?
- Ease of integration — Can it work with existing systems and workflows?
- Security and compliance — Does it meet organizational and regulatory standards?
Gallup found that one of the biggest challenges employees face is an “unclear use case or value proposition.” Even among employees using AI, only 16% strongly agree the tools are useful. That’s not an issue with the technology, but with how leaders communicate its intended use. Instead, adoption must be intentional, guided, and tied to real work outcomes, not buzzwords or experimentation alone.
Embrace AI Use in Your Organization
Ultimately, leading the AI shift isn’t about mandating adoption. It’s about modeling belief. It’s about equipping people to see AI not as something to comply with, but as something to partner with. When leaders set the tone—when they connect AI use to the organization’s purpose, strategy, and values—they shift the conversation from fear to focus.
AI doesn’t replace the need for leadership. It raises the bar for it. Prepare your leaders for what’s coming next and help them align their teams around the opportunity of AI with our new course, Leading AI Adoption: Accelerate AI Impact Through Empathy and Action.