Strong business leaders don’t let AI take the lead; instead, they stand out by harnessing it as the ultimate leadership tool. Managed wisely, AI can elevate entire companies. Managed poorly, and it can bring them down.
Too many executives have rushed into AI or implemented it without understanding it, causing employee confusion, unrealized company goals and wasted time. Executives who wait for AI to improve before learning more about it will forever be playing catch-up. Leaders who take the initiative now to grasp all AI has to offer will be a part of its growth and its synergy with their company. They’ll bring a competitive advantage through innovation, real-time adaptation and better customer experiences.
As Lauren Irving learned to see AI as a leadership tool – not a technical tool – she stopped using it for answers and started using it as a thought partner. “For business leaders, that mindset matters. AI isn’t about shortcuts; it’s about better thinking, stronger questions and faster learning loops,” says Irving, who earned her MBA and a graduate certificate in Business Analytics at Gies College of Business at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
AI needs humans to function, and business leaders must understand that crucial connection as it relates to both employees and customers. This requires familiarity with the nuances of AI ethics, bias, risk and adoption strategies.
Irving notes that those “aren’t technical concerns; they’re leadership skills. Analytics grounds those decisions in evidence. You can’t lead AI responsibly without understanding how these areas interact or knowing when to slow down and keep humans in the loop.”
Must-have AI leadership skills: Ethics and bias
In fact, humanity is a crucial tool in a leader’s AI ethics skill set. “We’re the ones who have to tell the AI what to do. We’re the ones who have to verify the AI did what it was supposed to. And we’re the ones who are going to have to verify that AI did it in a way that is appropriate and ethical and aligns with the values of our organization,” says Robert Brunner, chief disruption officer at Gies College of Business.
Like ethics, bias has a human element. Most large language models have been trained in the US, so they have a US bias. Asking ChatGPT a question while earning an online MBA in a Gies Business global classroom may yield a very American bias, and global classmates will be able to point that out — which will drive home the importance for leaders to seek out those human checks at work too.
Breaking down bias also means guiding employees to use AI for insights, not answers or confirmations. “Take a large language model like ChatGPT, for example,” says Elizabeth Luckman, a clinical associate professor of Business Administration at Gies. “It is designed to ‘yes, and’ everything because it wants to keep you engaged. Unless you specifically ask it to question your thinking, it’s not going to. It’s going to agree and dig deeper.”
Must-have AI leadership skills: Risk and adoption
Executives provide AI leadership by being keenly aware of its risks and ensuring appropriate, thoughtful guardrails for its use. Employees will feel more at ease using AI when their leader is grounded in regulations and legal precedent and knows how to minimize liabilities and risks in their particular niche, whether health care, human resources, or accounting.
For example, AI may be able to read MRI results, but it doesn’t necessarily know how to prioritize them, what to do next or how to talk to patients — nor will it meet regulations requiring an appropriately trained doctor to share these details with patients, Brunner notes.
Leaders who share these industry-related considerations with employees during the adoption of AI are building a risk-savvy company.
Transparency helps assuage employees’ fears of AI. Is their AI use logged or visible to others in the company? Will certain projects – such as government jobs or contracts – make their AI conversations subject to FOIA regulations? Be honest about these questions, Brunner says. “Transparency and culture are important,” Brunner says. “Give examples so employees are educated and know how these tools work.”
Brunner also tells students they shouldn’t rush to replace employees with AI. Instead, AI should be a team sport, with leaders giving employees the time and courage to find the best ways to accomplish their tasks and grow the company. People who manage rather than lead are tempted to roll people out and AI in. Strong leaders are patient and give employees the time and freedom to try, fail and iterate.
AI-related leadership courses at Gies College of Business
- Disruption and Emerging Technologies
- AI in Business: Fundamentals, Foundations, and Future Possibilities
- Innovate – Healthcare Innovation Process
- Navigating Emerging Media and AI
- Emerging Technology, Disruption, and AI
- Advanced Topics in Artificial Intelligence
Ready to create an AI leadership arsenal?
A self-paced class shouldn’t be your go-to.
“There is nothing wrong with one-off tutorials, but a well-designed master’s degree is going to take learners on an experience of learning in context, not just transferring knowledge or building a single skill,” Luckman notes.
When seeking a master’s program, the goal is to find one that equips leaders to oversee AI responsibly. At Gies Business, for example, the AI cornerstones of analytics and strategy are woven into many classes so learners can understand AI leadership in action, not just as a concept. They learn about real, current issues — lessons they can apply at work right now — not textbook anecdotes that are years or decades out of date.
“A lot of value comes from the discussions we have in class,” Brunner says. Learners from different industries, backgrounds, countries and cultures bring insights that even the professors don’t always have. Rising business leaders often think they have the best judgment or that their job can never be replaced by AI, but they quickly learn in class that “the variety of human perspectives and cultures makes it so difficult to be supremely confident in your predictions.”
Irving says the Gies Business program as a whole made a huge difference in her career as a quality and training manager. “The value of my MBA wasn’t the credential; it was how it reshaped how I think and collaborate. Early in the program, one of my company’s vice presidents told me he could tell I was in an MBA program because I was asking better questions and digging deeper. Self-paced online courses or YouTube videos can be useful, but they don’t replace working through ambiguity with diverse teams. That experience changes how you show up at work. I didn’t leave the program with answers; I left with better questions. That mindset has shaped my career and my life, especially as technology keeps changing.”
Read more about how the Gies iMBA blends flexibility, community, and real-world outcomes at https://giesonline.illinois.edu/explore-programs/online-mba.