One of the key questions facing the future of employment is how we prepare ourselves for Artificial Intelligence taking more and more of our jobs. However, we should be prepared to look at the positives this technology will bring. Indeed, the power of AI has the ability to drastically improve many aspects of employment. 

Leadership is set to become one such aspect. Ultimately, the power of AI lies in its ability to reduce the uncertainty that occurs when leaders make predictions. 

From the point of view of leaders, AI has the ability to take general questions and deliver data-driven answers, pin-pointing areas of focus and generating achievable solutions. For example, a broad question to a data-analytics team regarding productivity can be answered by training algorithms on any number of data sources, from financial to internal communications. They are able to recognise and interpret trends and patterns that are normally unseen to a human eye. 

Letting the AI team follow a direction and not a destination helps obtain results and answers not swayed by personal beliefs or bias regarding the company. This means completely new solutions. AI technology is able to recognise when levels of communications between teams are sub-optimal, or when teams are spending too long on particular assignments. Armed with this knowledge, leaders can make decisions that result in more cohesive teams and a more efficient company. 

Significantly, AI creates its own empirical feedback loop, which allows the AI solutions to be constantly tested.  

AI is undoubtedly here to improve leadership. However, in doing so, it may be changing its very nature.  

It may become more likely that certain qualities in leadership will be required less, such as domain expertise, decisiveness and authority. Human leadership qualities may come to be valued more such as humility, adaptability, vision and constant engagement.  

Indeed, meta-analytic studies already suggest that personality traits such as curiosity, extraversion and emotional stability are twice as important as IQ when it comes to predicting leadership effectiveness. 

 As such, we may see leadership roles in the future that are a lot more ‘human’, working closely with AI systems to not only identify solutions, but to ensure their smooth, effective implementation.