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What does leadership look like when part of your team is non-human (AI) but intelligent enough to manage others? Madhusudhan H N MSc Project Management Student 2024-25| University of Limerick Limerick, Ireland With the trend shifting towards it's not anymore AI vs Human but AI vs AI Agent, a recent thought that was sitting with me is how leadership evolves when AI is part of the team, not just as a tool but as an intelligent agent capable of managing tasks or even people. How do we lead when some team members are not human but still highly capable? Saving Changes... Posted: Apr 14, 2025 5:34 AM

Sort By: Newest First Chronological Votes Abolfazl Yousefi Darestani Manager, Quality and Continuous Improvement| Hörmann-TNR Industrial Doors Newmarket, Ontario, Canada In some forms and areas, it should be easier, as you can set their tone and language by defining general rules, which simplifies communication. However, there are other challenges as well Saving Changes... Posted: Apr 14, 2025 7:48 AM Rami Kaibni Community Champion Senior Projects Manager | Field & Marten Associates New Westminster, British Columbia, Canada Interesting thought, Madhusudhan. Traditional leadership has centered on authority, vision, and people management but as AI becomes part of the team, not just as a tool, but as an intelligent agent then leadership evolves into orchestration: aligning the strengths of both human and non-human contributors to achieve shared goals. In this shift, emotional intelligence becomes even more crucial, especially in keeping human teams engaged, valued, and supported ... 1 reply by Madhusudhan H N Apr 15, 2025 3:42 PM Madhusudhan H N ... That’s a great perspective and really resonates. A recent reflection building on this is how the leader's role becomes less about direct control and more about curating harmony between emotional intelligence for human engagement and strategic calibration of AI agents. Leadership then starts looking like designing a well balanced ecosystem, not just managing a team. Saving Changes... Posted: Apr 14, 2025 12:03 PM Sanjay Singh Project Manager / Business Process Improvement Guru Maharashtra, India Yes, interesting thought, Madhusudhan. Look, Leadership with AI teammates means becoming a bridge—not just a boss. You’ll focus on aligning AI’s efficiency with human values: setting clear boundaries (e.g., ‘AI handles data, humans handle empathy’), auditing decisions for fairness, and upskilling teams to collaborate critically with AI. The goal? A culture where humans and AI amplify each other’s strengths, with leadership ensuring ethics and purpose steer the ship. ... 1 reply by Madhusudhan H N Apr 15, 2025 3:47 PM Madhusudhan H N ... I appreictae this perspective. It makes sense that leadership with AI becomes more about being a bridge. Focusing on aligning AI’s strengths with human values and ensuring a balance between efficiency and empathy sounds like the right way forward. Leadership would then be about guiding both sides to work together purposefully and ethically. Saving Changes... Posted: Apr 14, 2025 12:45 PM Kiron Bondale Retired | Mentor| Retired Welland, Ontario, Canada Madhusudhan - It really depends on what values, principles and models the AI has been trained on. At one extreme, the AI will be a glorified toaster and it would be odd to treat it any different than any other appliance. At the other extreme, it will be a full sentient being and to treat it otherwise would be disrespectful and potentially lethal. A good fictional source of ideas related to this is the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode The Measure of a Man. Kiron ... 1 reply by Madhusudhan H N Apr 15, 2025 3:54 PM Madhusudhan H N ... Thanks for sharing that, Kiron. You make an excellent point about how the AI’s values, principles, and models would define its role. The Star Trek episode you mentioned, The Measure of a Man, really highlights the dilemma, whether Data, as an artificial lifeform, should be treated as property or as an individual with rights. It is a fascinating metaphor for the conversation around AI today, where the ethical considerations of how we define and treat AI become more complex as technology evolves. Thanks! Saving Changes... Posted: Apr 15, 2025 7:26 AM Madhusudhan H N MSc Project Management Student 2024-25| University of Limerick Limerick, Ireland Apr 14, 2025 12:03 PM Replying to Rami Kaibni ... Interesting thought, Madhusudhan. Traditional leadership has centered on authority, vision, and people management but as AI becomes part of the team, not just as a tool, but as an intelligent agent then leadership evolves into orchestration: aligning the strengths of both human and non-human contributors to achieve shared goals. In this shift, emotional intelligence becomes even more crucial, especially in keeping human teams engaged, valued, and supported That’s a great perspective and really resonates. A recent reflection building on this is how the leader's role becomes less about direct control and more about curating harmony between emotional intelligence for human engagement and strategic calibration of AI agents. Leadership then starts looking like designing a well balanced ecosystem, not just managing a team. Saving Changes... Posted: Apr 15, 2025 3:42 PM (Updated by author: Apr 15, 2025 3:46 PM) Madhusudhan H N MSc Project Management Student 2024-25| University of Limerick Limerick, Ireland Apr 14, 2025 12:45 PM Replying to Sanjay Singh ... Yes, interesting thought, Madhusudhan. Look, Leadership with AI teammates means becoming a bridge—not just a boss. You’ll focus on aligning AI’s efficiency with human values: setting clear boundaries (e.g., ‘AI handles data, humans handle empathy’), auditing decisions for fairness, and upskilling teams to collaborate critically with AI. The goal? A culture where humans and AI amplify each other’s strengths, with leadership ensuring ethics and purpose steer the ship. I appreictae this perspective. It makes sense that leadership with AI becomes more about being a bridge. Focusing on aligning AI’s strengths with human values and ensuring a balance between efficiency and empathy sounds like the right way forward. Leadership would then be about guiding both sides to work together purposefully and ethically. Saving Changes... Posted: Apr 15, 2025 3:47 PM Madhusudhan H N MSc Project Management Student 2024-25| University of Limerick Limerick, Ireland Apr 15, 2025 7:26 AM Replying to Kiron Bondale ... Madhusudhan - It really depends on what values, principles and models the AI has been trained on. At one extreme, the AI will be a glorified toaster and it would be odd to treat it any different than any other appliance. At the other extreme, it will be a full sentient being and to treat it otherwise would be disrespectful and potentially lethal. A good fictional source of ideas related to this is the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode The Measure of a Man. Kiron Thanks for sharing that, Kiron. You make an excellent point about how the AI’s values, principles, and models would define its role. The Star Trek episode you mentioned, The Measure of a Man, really highlights the dilemma, whether Data, as an artificial lifeform, should be treated as property or as an individual with rights. It is a fascinating metaphor for the conversation around AI today, where the ethical considerations of how we define and treat AI become more complex as technology evolves. Thanks! Saving Changes... Posted: Apr 15, 2025 3:54 PM Sergio Luis Conte Helping to create solutions for everyone| Worldwide based Organizations Buenos Aires, Argentina it is a big mistake here. First of all, the definition of intelligent. All into AI relays on a key concept: human in the loop. The final decision is on human being hands, including AI Agents. Ai Agents decisions are "copy and paste" from human decisions that you mimic when you work with the people that will help you to create the agent. So, we need to avoid to contribute to general confusion. Saving Changes... Posted: Apr 20, 2025 11:36 AM (Updated by author: Apr 20, 2025 11:37 AM) Luis Branco CEO| Business Insight, Consultores de Gestão, Ldª Carcavelos, Lisboa, Portugal This question goes straight to the heart of what I’ve been calling Cognitive Agility and Farmer Leadership for the Digital Age. When AI stops being just a “tool” and starts acting as an intelligent agent, leadership must undergo a profound transformation — not only in practice but in mindset. Leadership is no longer about control — it’s about cultivation, even when it comes to non-human agents. This requires: - Ethical curation of automated decisions - Co-creation with intelligent systems - Reconfiguration of human roles (focusing on empathy, purpose, creativity, and systems thinking) - A new cultural contract, where leaders orchestrate humans and AIs with clarity and psychological safety We are no longer just leading people — we are leading sociotechnical ecosystems. AI can manage, but only human leadership can give meaning to what is managed. As I wrote in one of my posts: “The future will not be shaped by those who adopt technology first, but by those who integrate it with ethics, intention, and humanity.” Thus, the leader’s role becomes less about being a “supervisor” and more about being: - An orchestrator of hybrid collaboration - A guardian of trust and purpose - A facilitator of continuous learning — both human and algorithmic And the big question is no longer “How do we lead AI?” It becomes: “Are we ready to lead alongside AI — with purpose and courage?” Saving Changes... Posted: Apr 20, 2025 11:58 AM

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