AI is changing leadership. Are your managers ready?
AI was expected to make work easier.
For many managers, it has changed the job instead.
Careerminds research found that only 35% of managers believe AI has significantly simplified their role. That finding challenges a common assumption. While AI is changing the way work gets done, it’s also changing what managers are expected to do. From my own personal AI adoption and conversations with clients, I think it’s building huge efficiencies and creativity. But I do think it’s also adding an intensity to work.
The conversation around AI often focuses on technology, but the research points to something broader. AI readiness is increasingly a leadership challenge.
The work hasn’t disappeared. It’s changed.
Managers are still responsible for leading people, making decisions, and keeping teams moving forward. On top of that, AI has introduced a new layer of responsibility.
Many are helping employees work through uncertainty about AI while adapting to changing workflows. Others are identifying the skills their teams will need as roles evolve. They’re also supporting organisational transformation, often while expectations continue to grow.
Overarching all of this is a thought cloud in the background… Will my job become obsolete? How can I future proof myself and my role.
Giving someone access to a new platform doesn’t prepare them for those conversations.
The promise and the reality
AI can speed up parts of the job. Even so, it can also create work that didn’t exist before.
Careerminds found that two-thirds of employees spend up to six hours each week correcting poor-quality AI-generated work.
As a result, much of that work finds its way back to managers. They’re helping teams understand where AI adds value, where more judgement is needed, and how these tools fit into everyday work. The technology may be evolving quickly; people still need guidance on how to use it well.
Why this matters
This reaches well beyond the day-to-day experience of managers.
The same research links leadership capability gaps with higher turnover, growing skills shortages, lower engagement, slower decision-making, and reduced productivity.
At the same time, seven in ten organisations say they would reduce AI investment if it fails to deliver the expected return, while eight in ten CEOs believe AI could eventually put their own role at risk.
Taken together, those findings suggest organisations are navigating far more than a technology rollout. They’re asking managers to lead people through uncertainty while expectations continue to evolve, which places even greater importance on leadership capability.
Preparing managers for what’s next
Mark Saddic, Senior Partner at Careerminds, argues that the organisations most likely to succeed won’t be the ones that adopt AI the fastest. They’ll be the ones that prepare managers to lead people through the change.
At Athena Leadership Academy, we see leadership development through that same lens.
AI will continue to evolve, and so will the expectations placed on managers. Preparing managers for today’s workplace means helping them build the confidence to lead through change, even large-scale change to the everyday ways of working we all took for granted two years ago. It also means helping them support their teams as new challenges emerge and apply sound judgement to everything they produce, especially when using AI.
Quick doesn’t always mean better. Key skills that remain unchanged in their importance are providing regular feedback (positive and constructive) and, as a team, learning from failures.
The organisations that invest in those capabilities will be better placed to realise the value of AI because they’ll have managers who know how to bring people with them.
