The answer will depend on how we use, manage and think about AI in the coming months. There are a lot of attention paid to artificial intelligence; some are thinking about how to use it, and others are thinking about the ethics, rules, and implications of using this technology.

It is very easy to get caught up in the excitement about generative AI or machine learning—I am as excited as the next guy. But I am old enough and have read enough science fiction to know that new technology is always a double-edged sword. While it never delivers all the promises, fortunately, it rarely is as bad as the pessimists would have us believe.

Most of the noise right now concerns where and how to use AI and what functions and jobs can be replaced or automated with AI, but we don’t see anything about leadership and AI.

Leaders in every organisation that uses or will use AI (and it will soon be all of us) need to think hard about how we can use it and lead our people through the changes necessary to implement it.

Four Questions Leaders Should Ask

1. What can AI do for us?

When the internet started, everyone wanted a website, despite most leaders not having the first clue why. They just knew that they needed one because their competition had one. Anyone who can remember Web 1.0 knows what I’m referring to. This time, let’s be more strategic; leaders must assess whether AI can automate, augment, or replace certain tasks. Are there processes that AI can streamline or opportunities for AI to improve decision-making? Defining AI’s role is key to integrating it in ways that align with business objectives.

2. How will we lead the implementation?

It is not enough to shout, “We need an AI!” and then expect somebody somewhere down the org chart to make it happen. Leadership must guide the implementation of what will be a significant technology for their company. Leaders must establish clear goals and timelines, ensure cross-functional collaboration, and advocate for the overall organisational strategy.

3. How will we lead our people through this change?

AI’s potential to displace jobs creates anxiety among employees. Anyone with a brain and a sense of history is right to worry about how this technology will affect our jobs and lives. Technology consistently devaluates skills, displaces workers and changes the jobs landscape, and AI will be no different. A good leader, recognizing the anxiety that this produces, manages this by focusing on people-centered leadership. Open communication about the impact of AI, offering reskilling opportunities, and elaborating on how AI can make our jobs easier to be good at are critical to creating a culture of trust and adaptability.

4. How can AI augment my own leadership?

The tough one for most senior leadership is to get our heads around the fact that AI is not just about other people’s jobs. It is not merely about operational efficiency, reducing the dependence on slow or unreliable processes, or reducing headcount. AI, whether generative AI or machine learning, can and should be used to make leaders at all levels better at their jobs. AI tools can help leaders make better (data-driven) decisions even faster. We can use them to help us manage teams, processes, and projects and to keep strategy in sight when we are bogged down in the day-to-day work of getting stuff done.

Senior leaders who only want to use AI for other people will be the modern-day equivalent of the boss who dictates emails to his secretary so she can type them up – a dinosaur quickly to be made extinct.

Four Mistakes to Avoid

1. Abdicating responsibility for understanding AI.

Knowing what AI can (and cannot) do, how it works, how reliable it is etc.. is not a job for someone else. You can leave the nitty-gritty details to smarter and better-trained people – good leadership is always about hiring and trusting smart people. But as exhausting as it is, we must get our heads around this new tech. Leaders have to grasp the possibility and the risk of AI. There are already cases of company leaders clearly not understanding AI and getting themselves into trouble.

2. Automating broken processes.

AI is not smart enough to fix a broken process. If you take something that does not work well and then apply AI to it, you will have a faster version of the broken process. Leaders have to ensure that workflows are optimised, strategic alignment is considered, and processes are streamlined before the application of AI. Otherwise, the technology will merely magnify existing problems, leading to frustration and missed opportunities.

3. Neglecting the people side of AI implementation.

Focusing solely on the technical aspects of AI while overlooking its impact on people is a significant error. Leaders must anticipate the human concerns that come with AI adoption. This is true for the people who work for us (fears of displacement and job insecurity) or our clients (eliminating the human touch that is still a significant aspect of many client-company relationships). Really think about whether AI will add to your business or just your bottom line.

4. Underestimating AI’s potential for leadership improvement.

Again, AI is not just for other people’s jobs. Think about ways you can use it to enhance all aspects of your business, including making you a better leader. Leaders who fail to see AI’s potential to improve their own performance—whether through decision support or automating routine tasks—miss out on a valuable tool for becoming more efficient and strategic.

AI is here, and its impact on our lives will be tremendous; of that, there is no doubt. We cannot avoid it or resist it. And, while it would be easy to think of AI as something our IT department will handle, or that the business units will figure out a way to exploit, that’s a mistake that HR Leaders and leaders in the organization generally, should avoid.

By asking the right questions and avoiding these common mistakes, leaders can harness AI to drive innovation, improve productivity, and lead their organisations into the future with confidence.