The Future of Management Part 4 (of 4): Ethics in the Era of AI

For a long time, being a “good manager” mostly meant being competent.

• Could you hit the numbers?

• Could you ship the work?

• Could you keep the train moving?

But something has shifted.

Today, people aren’t just asking, “Can this leader deliver results?” They’re asking, “How are those results being delivered — and at what cost?” And I don’t think that expectation is going away. I think it’s accelerating. Especially as AI becomes part of the equation…

There’s a narrative that AI will simplify leadership. Think about it: we can use AI to automate decisions, reduce complexity, and make things “efficient.” But here’s what I suspect will actually happen: AI will make ethical judgment more important. Not less.

Because now managers will have to ask questions like:

• Should we automate this role, even if we can?

• Is this algorithm fair, or just efficient?

• Who might this decision disadvantage?

• Are we using data responsibly — or just because we have it?

• Where does human judgment still matter most? DOES IT??

These aren’t technical questions. The are values questions. And no dashboard is going to answer them for you (but then again, AI is getting pretty smart).

I think it’s very possible that, particularly with this political climate, transparency will become even more vital. We will crave it. It may be short-lived — desiring the truth sometimes is — but I do anticipate that organizations will be well-served to be transparent to both employees and to consumers.

This seemingly goes back to trust. Can you trust an organization and the people within, if there are no guidelines about how AI is used? If there isn’t clarity about the standards and practices of how it is to be leveraged? We are only at the tip of the iceberg. What’s to come is unknown, but it will revolutionize the way we work, and it just may challenge us to consider how we will get along without a technology thinking (and making crucial judgements) for us.

The Future of Management: Part 3 – Why Emotional Intelligence Will Matter More (Again)

Photo by Nechama Lock on Unsplash

For the last few years, empathy has taken a public beating. And yet, AI predicts that managers will be required to have refined soft skills more than ever in the years to come. Let’s unpack this.

In many leadership circles—and especially in the broader political and cultural climate—empathy has been reframed as softness, indecision, or even weakness. “Strong leadership” has too often been reduced to certainty, dominance, and speed. Listening became optional. Nuance became inconvenient.

And yet, quietly, the research never changed.

Organizations that perform well over time still rely on leaders who can regulate themselves, read a room, listen without defensiveness, and lead people who don’t think, look, or work exactly like them. The data has been consistent, even when the narrative hasn’t.

So why do I think AI predicts that emotional intelligence and so-called “soft skills” will come back into focus over the next decade?

Because the systems leaders are managing are becoming more complex, not less.

Work today sits at the intersection of rapid technological change, multigenerational expectations, globalized teams, and ongoing social uncertainty. In that environment, command-and-control leadership breaks down quickly. You can’t brute-force trust. You can’t mandate engagement. You can’t shame people into sustainable performance. (I mean, you CAN do these things, but what will the outcome be? Disarray, splintered relationships, and stymied progress). 

In theory, if we can get through this volatile epoch, leaders will see the operational skills needed to succeed: emotional regulation, clear (non-inflaming) communication, and adaptability. 

That said, I’m not exactly sure when AI thinks this will become “important” again. It’s probable that the leaders who will thrive in the next decade won’t be the loudest or the most forceful. They’ll be the ones who can hold complexity, listen well, make decisions without collapsing into reactivity, and lead across difference without losing themselves… but will the people with power acknowledge this? Time will tell, just as the pendulum swings. 

Empathy isn’t weakness. It’s capacity.

And the more strained our systems become, the more that capacity will matter.

The Future of Management: Part 2

To continue our series, we will progress down the path of discussing how AI will influence and change management in the future. 

The second assertion pertaining to the use of AI for management, is that remote work may start to continue to grow again. I recall in 2018 when organizations were struggling with the cultural shift of hiring remote workers. Leaders wanted to see their employees in the office. Many continued to resist the WFH (work from home) reality, while others embraced the beneficial shift of sourcing talent from across the nation. Only two years later, a global pandemic struck, leaving many organizations scrambling with how to quickly adjust to a WFH life. 

We also saw a shift following the pandemic of a hybrid reality, where organizations took their learnings from the pandemic to optimize working from home. This hybrid approach continued to allow for seeking talent farther away from offices than before, but also aimed to keep physical offices intact.

AI is now making a prediction – I speak of AI as if it’s a person (yikes). It posits that remote and hybrid work will continue to grow. Interestingly enough, that’s counter to what we’ve seen in the job market and, more personally, what I’ve seen with clients. While I do not see the writing on the wall that remote work will grow, it’s possible that the use of AI will enable better training for employees virtually. 

AI may be able to make suggestions on how to best manage individuals remotely, but I will be surprised to see a drastic shift (back) to WFH due to AI alone. Stay tuned for part three of The Future of Management in the coming weeks.

The Future of Management: A Multi Part Series

The Future of Management: Part 1

Management as we know it is already changing. My area of expertise, and the educational programs I pursued, may become obsolete one day. As someone who is intrigued by the changing tides, let’s address how management will continue to evolve to adequately prepare. Over the next seven posts, I will be diving into just how I suspect management will change. This may be illuminating (or, perhaps, intimidating!) but also informative.

Photo by Steve Johnson on Unsplash

It seems highly probable that as we continue to leverage AI, we will do so for people management. AI can be used to make more informed decisions, give an amalgamation of market trends (perhaps influencing hiring), and can personalize employee development, at a rapid clip, might I add. This data-driven management may turn into the norm. Will it provide precise performance tracking? Or perhaps perfect resource allocation? Could it turn corporations into robotic cultures?

Let’s consider how we can already start to use AI for people management. AI can process a great deal of information quickly, as we know. And we also know that people are unique beings who have different learning preferences, as well as varying strengths and weaknesses. We can use AI to help us tailor training programs as well as career pathing – and even motivation strategies for the employee. It’s funny writing this as these are things I actively work with managers on to support their team members. AI has created a DIY approach to management when it comes to those very individualized considerations. 

One issue that is recurring for managers across the board is how time-exhaustive their meeting schedules are, among other things. Although I have not attempted this yet, I presume AI can support the process with onboarding curricula. Perhaps learning and development teams will become more efficient when leveraging AI to create scalable programs for corporations.  

As we also know, management is not all “people,” it is also process. A part of process can include compliance and monitoring. Have you considered using AI to support you with regulatory compliance, or the detection of fraud, or reducing risk? If we can make our places of work safer and more compliant with less margin of error, that bodes well for all. 

Another consideration we may want to ponder is the ethical challenges. Will information stay confidential? Should people learn soft skills rather than being told how to behave by a computer? Is the environmental effect of leveraging this technology worth it? 

Stay tuned for part two coming soon.