How AI is changing the work of executive teams

As Artificial Intelligence (AI) continues to revolutionize various facets of human activity, its impact on the business world is proving to be nothing short of revolutionary. By automating routine tasks, analyzing vast amounts of data for insights, and offering personalized customer experiences, AI promises to reduce costs, accelerate innovation, optimize customer experience, and strengthen risk management across industry sectors. While much has been written about AI's infiltration into every segment of an organization’s value chain, less attention has been paid to its effect on the top team—stakeholders who often have less direct experience and expertise with AI integration in business processes. Yet, AI's presence is increasingly felt in boardrooms, prompting executive teams to reassess their operational strategies and adopt transformative changes in leadership and management practices. As AI evolves, it becomes an indispensable tool for executives, enabling them to navigate complex business environments with enhanced precision and agility. Understanding AI's impact on executive functions is becoming crucial for organizations striving to remain competitive and innovative. By leveraging AI, enterprise leaders can make more informed decisions, optimize processes, and drive sustainable growth, ensuring their organizations stay ahead in the ever-evolving business landscape. So, how exactly is AI reshaping the various accountabilities of executive leadership teams? Let's explore the following six areas, which consistently emerge as the main responsibilities for top executive teams:

1. Setting the Organization's Strategy: With guidance from the board, senior leadership teams are on point for setting their organization's strategy.  Their work includes analyzing market trends, assessing internal capabilities, and identifying opportunities for growth and innovation. By aligning the company's vision and goals with actionable plans, they ensure that all units of the organization work cohesively towards common objectives. This work require that they make critical decisions on resource allocation, risk management, and competitive positioning, guiding the organization through complex business environments. This kind of strategic oversight is essential for driving sustainable success and maintaining a competitive edge in the market. AI offers the potential of equipping executive teams with more powerful data-driven decision-making capabilities. By leveraging AI for data analysis, these teams can make informed strategic decisions and gain predictive insights to anticipate market trends and business challenges. This strategic foresight can allow organizations to stay ahead of the curve and respond proactively to emerging opportunities and threats. Furthermore, AI's ability to process vast amounts of data quickly and accurately, in ways that would take weeks or months for an army of analysts, means that executives can base their strategies on comprehensive and up-to-date information, reducing the risk of costly errors and enhancing overall strategic planning.
2. Managing Performance: Senior leadership teams are also accountable for managing the execution of their organization's strategy and overseeing performance. They ensure that strategic plans are translated into actionable initiatives, monitor progress, and adjust tactics as needed to stay on course. In our work with top teams, we observe that when meeting as a team, enterprise leaders will often allocate the bigger share of their time together—between 50 and 70 percent—on reviewing key performance indicators (KPIs), identifying areas for improvement, and making decisions to close the gap between projected and actual performance. Their oversight ensures that the strategy is effectively implemented, and that the organization remains agile and responsive to changing conditions. AI tools are already being applied to enhance organizational efficiency by streamlining workflows and providing real-time performance analytics to decision-making teams. More top teams are likely to use AI to monitor and manage performance metrics more effectively and feel more confident about their ability to stay on track and meet their goals. AI can also help identify patterns and trends in performance data that might not be immediately apparent to managers, enabling more targeted interventions and continuous improvement. By automating routine performance management analytical tasks, the hidden advantage of AI is that it can free up time for members of top teams to focus on higher-value activities, or on team development, which we see consistently being de-prioritized by top teams—and is harder to achieve through AI.
3. Attracting and Retaining Talent: Senior leadership teams are also accountable for setting up the right organizational conditions for attracting and retaining talent for their organizations. Finding and keeping the best talent is an ongoing process that requires CEOs and their teams to invest time. Sam Altman advises that, even after attaining product-market fit, founders should spend “between a third and a half of their time hiring.” For early-stage startups, he sees that percentage as needing to be even higher. Similarly, top teams need to develop and implement strategies to create a compelling employer brand, ensuring the company is seen as an attractive place to work. These leaders should focus on building a positive workplace culture, offering competitive compensation and benefits, and providing opportunities for professional growth and development. Their efforts in talent management are crucial for maintaining a skilled and motivated workforce, which is vital for the organization's long-term success. AI can analyze big data to identify and select talent with the greatest fit and potential, addressing employee concerns and fostering a supportive work environment. This data-driven approach to talent management ensures that top teams attract and retain crucial capabilities for long-term success. AI can also assist in identifying skill gaps within the organization and recommending personalized development plans for employees, thereby enhancing overall workforce capability. Last, AI can also directly advance high potentials’ progression up the “organizational lattice” with AI-based coaching tools to help managers and executives improve their decision-making, communication and influencing skills through real-time feedback.
4. Cultivating Purposeful Culture: Building trust and transparency around the adoption of AI is a challenge in many organizations yet it will be a crucial priority to achieve a healthy and responsible integration of this new capability. AI can technically foster greater inclusion and collaboration among team members, if the right approach is adopted—one that brings the right subject matter experts and decision makers to the table. By promoting open communication and collaboration, top teams that embark on the adoption of AI are more likely to break down silos and encourage a more inclusive and engaged workforce. With its potential to facilitate remote work and virtual collaboration, AI can make it easier for teams to work together effectively regardless of their physical location. This inclusivity can lead to a more diverse and innovative organizational culture, where different perspectives are valued and leveraged.
5. Driving Innovation and Transformation: As we can see from the topics already highlighted above, AI is reshaping the roles and responsibilities of executive teams, driving innovation and transformation within organizations. The long-term impact of AI on executive leadership and organizational structure is likely to be profound, as it enables leaders to adapt to evolving business landscapes. Embracing AI-driven innovation ensures that organizations remain agile and competitive in a rapidly changing environment. AI can also support the development of new products and services by providing insights into customer preferences and market trends, thereby driving continuous innovation and growth.
6. Managing and Influencing the Ecosystem: last, it is worth highlighting that top teams can leverage AI to maintain a real-time, accurate view of the mission-critical networks in which they operate, and that impacts both short and long-term performance. Adopting a collaborative mindset towards AI implementation is essential for effective cross-organizational leadership. By using AI to monitor and analyze external factors such as shifts in market dynamics, regulatory changes, competitive actions, and top talent moves, top teams can make more informed decisions and better navigate the evolving shape of their business ecosystem.

An Action Plan for Executive Teams

Despite its benefits, AI adoption presents several challenges for top teams. One major obstacle is the lack of skills and expertise to oversee the implementation of complex AI integration. Many senior executives feel pressure to harness AI's full potential but struggle with the technical and strategic aspects of its integration, with knowledge and capabilities often located several layers below the C-suite. Furthermore, ethical concerns, data privacy issues, and the risk of misinformation pose significant challenges and often fail to closely align with the organization's values and goals, adding to employee resistance to AI adoption.

To address these challenges, executive teams should invest in AI education and training to build a strong foundational understanding of AI technologies. Fostering a culture of continuous learning and innovation is essential, encouraging team members to experiment with AI tools and solutions. Collaborating with AI experts and consultants can provide valuable insights and guidance. Establishing clear ethical guidelines and transparency around AI use will also help build trust and ensure responsible AI implementation. Last and not least, executives should prioritize the development of a robust AI purpose statement that aligns with the organization's overall goals and objectives, ensuring that AI initiatives are integrated seamlessly into the business mission and strategy. In conclusion, AI should not just be seen as the end in itself. Instead, it should be seen as a strategic resource for executive teams, enhancing their ability to lead, innovate, and drive organizational performance and transformation. leadership “first principles” cannot be overstated, as they provide the foundation upon which AI can be effectively leveraged. Only by balancing AI expertise with strong leadership fundamentals, can executive teams harness the full potential of AI to achieve sustainable growth and success.