Why AI isn’t diluting companies’ thirst for human leadership talent

There has been much discussion about the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on the workforce, including debate about how it might replace certain roles in various sectors. However, as AI becomes more embedded in people’s lives, it is helping many become more efficient at their jobs and creating new opportunities for employment.

John Doyle, Partner and Head of TMT at Page Executive MEA, is positive about AI’s impact on senior leadership roles. Working with clients to recruit at this level, he’s seen how human skills have remained at the core, with the best leaders using AI to increase efficiencies across their businesses.

It’s a balance Doyle thinks will continue, and one also seen within Page Executive, where AI helps with data analysis and admin, while human interactions and knowledge still form the spine of talent acquisition and client relationships.

In an interview, Doyle talked about this balance, how businesses are approaching leadership recruitment in response to the rise of AI, and why he’s positive about AI’s future role in senior management.

John, could you share your insights on how AI’s growing influence has already started to reshape leadership within businesses?

The speed at which leaders have to make decisions and react to change has become much faster in recent years. As such, we’ve mainly seen AI being used to save time and improve efficiency, rather than doing anything close to replacing what we’d call the ‘human’ elements of the job, such as project or people management. So, although it’s not overhauled the basics of how business leadership works, the help AI can bring is still important.

Although AI advancements have freed up time to spend on more human-related challenges and decisions, leaders actually having to be thoroughly clued-up on AI to get jobs is less of a reality. What has become more important is them having the ability to know where AI can be harnessed effectively.

How exactly do we see this AI assistance in the day-to-day responsibilities of business leaders?

Mainly through simple administrative and communication tasks, plus AI giving you the ability to interpret and receive information and data at faster speeds. You can ask an AI system questions any time, any place, anywhere, to help you make a more informed decision.

A lot of tools leaders are now simply automated. It’s leading to much faster decisions and processes – now you can get a thorough answer to a research question a minute before a meeting using AI assistance, whereas previously getting that information might have involved a chain of people compiling it for you.

How do you view the balance between traditional leadership qualities and tech/AI proficiency in the leadership recruitment landscape?

Of course, people are aware that the rise of AI is a huge technology shift, arguably the most significant since the launch of the internet. So, within companies there are often managers who are ready and able and excited about it.

But really, that’s not caused a huge shift in how companies approach leadership hiring, and I don’t expect it to in the foreseeable future. The skill sets people are looking for are similar to what we’ve always looked for. It’s people who are breaking the mould and finding new ways of improving the business. AI is just one element in a wider tech ecosystem that they have to be inquisitive about.

There are some people who’ve been in the AI field for a long time, but the majority are just getting to grips with it. So, unless you’re recruiting for a specialism AI leadership role, it's this curious nature that’s more important than being a deep AI specialist. Also, leaders will know how to hire specialists to bridge the gaps: skilful delegation is still one of the most important abilities in business leadership.

The bottom line is, AI is something that makes business leaders’ roles more efficient and productive. But in terms of how AI is applied to a wider business, the leadership skills still come from decision-making and managing that implementation rather than having expert knowledge of the intricacies of how AI works. 

Do you see a point where AI starts impinging on these ‘higher-up’ skills in businesses?

The bridge between tech and business still requires people in-between. That’s why cognitive skills, interpersonal skills, self-leadership, self-awareness, entrepreneurship are still the big things for business leaders. The human element isn't going away.

Even if AI doesn’t replace higher-function leadership tasks, do you see it playing a larger role for leaders soon?

We know that AI is only going to get more sophisticated, but the sophistication still comes from how it’s used to assist human decisions and processes.

For example, you can use AI to help process and format huge amounts of employee data, that could then help a business leader make better decisions about addressing diversity, for example. The human making those decisions is still the most important element, though.

How has AI affected your and your colleagues’ jobs in leadership recruitment?

It’s sped up communication, whether it’s for gathering elements of a proposal or getting market insights. But our jobs are so human interaction-orientated, and AI isn’t going to replace the core of our roles in the foreseeable future.

There are also elements AI will play a part in, in terms of sourcing and identifying candidates and pools of people. But it will never replace the fact that in recruitment, humans need to know you, and how one human can work with another. An AI tool won’t know if you’re a fit from a nuanced perspective. It just frees up more time to spend on those vital soft skill areas. It’s another reason why I see AI as a helpful tool rather than something that will replace me or the business leaders I work with. 

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