Many leaders are concerned that they'll no longer be needed. Leadership wisdom is more important in today's AI world than ever.
by Janet Ply, PhD · The Practical Leadership Newsletter · July 21, 2026
"Will AI replace me?"
Given the pace of change that AI has caused over the past two years and all the AI hoopla, it's a reasonable concern. AI can write reports, summarize meetings, analyze data, and perform tasks that once took hours or days in just a few minutes. It's easy to wonder where that leaves leaders.
I don't think that's the right question. The better question is this:
Can AI help me become a better leader?
Every time you’re promoted into a new leadership role, or you promote someone into a leadership role, the assignment is the same: Figure it out.
The best leaders don't figure it out alone. They borrow experience instead.
For generations, leaders borrowed experience from mentors, trusted colleagues, executive coaches, and seasoned leaders who had already faced similar challenges. Those conversations accelerated learning because they transferred something far more valuable than information - they transferred judgment.
I believe the answer is yes, AI can help me become a better leader, but not because AI has leadership wisdom. Its greatest value is that it can help transfer leadership wisdom and judgment.
Recently, I read two excellent Harvard Business Review articles that reinforced something I've observed. Amy Edmondson and Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic argue that organizations shouldn't eliminate the experiences that develop future leaders. David Duncan explains why experienced professionals consistently get more value from AI than less experienced employees. Their shared conclusion is that judgment develops through experience, and AI is most valuable when paired with that judgment.
I agree completely.
Where I think we have an even greater opportunity is in how we use AI to help leaders gain more from every experience they have.
Throughout history, people have learned from those with more experience. Apprentices learned beside master craftsmen. Pilots trained with instructors. Surgeons developed their skills by observing and practicing alongside experienced surgeons. Leadership has always worked the same way.
The challenge is that most leaders don't have an experienced executive coach sitting beside them when they're preparing for a difficult conversation, writing annual goals, coaching an employee, or making a high-stakes decision.
For many new leaders, learning happens the hard way. They try something, discover what didn't work, reflect, adjust, and try again. Over time, they begin to recognize patterns. Their judgment improves because their experiences accumulate.
There is no shortcut or silver bullet for experience.
But there may be a way to learn more from each experience while you're gaining it. That's exactly why I created the Leadarity AI thinking partner...more on that in a moment.
Over the past thirty years, I've learned that leadership wisdom is gained by pattern recognition, not by collecting frameworks or techniques.
The senior recruiter who has reviewed tens of thousands of resumes and interviewed thousands of people knows how to quickly assess red flags, ask probing questions, and determine if the candidate will be a good fit or not, eliminating many bad hires. The underwriter who has underwritten thousands of home loans knows where to look for credit problems and the right information to request.
The same is true for experienced leaders who see things newer leaders often don't. They anticipate resistance before announcing a change. They understand how one decision in their department may unintentionally affect another. They know which questions to ask because they've lived through the consequences of not asking them. They’ve seen numerous scenarios play out and have the battle scars to prove it.
Today, some people believe that AI can replace years of experience. But I see it differently.
Let’s take an example. Consider goal setting.
If you ask an AI tool to convert "Implement a new loan processing system by year-end" into a SMART goal, you'll probably receive a polished response that checks all the SMART boxes.
The problem is that implementing a system isn't the goal. It's the project that has to be completed in order to reach a goal. Your AI tool just handed you a confidently wrong answer.
An experienced leader immediately begins asking different questions:
Those questions come from leadership experience, not AI. More importantly, they teach a leader how experienced executives think.
Remember that AI is just pattern matching, based on consensus, not your unique situation.
The same principle applies to difficult conversations. A basic AI prompt can help organize your thoughts, but more useful and intentional learning comes from understanding why one approach builds trust while another creates resistance. When leaders can role-play, receive coaching in real time, explore different responses, and understand how their words may be interpreted, they aren't just preparing for one conversation. They're developing judgment they can apply to every conversation that follows.
As I read the Harvard Business Review articles, I realized they describe exactly why I've spent the past year working on.
I wasn't trying to build another AI tool or prompt database. I’ve been developing practical workshops and writing detailed guided AI instructions that incorporate the things I’ve learned over the past 30 years while recovering large programs or working with executives.
My approach helps leaders think like experienced leaders while they gain the experience.
The workshops teach the principles. The leadership frameworks provide a roadmap. The guided AI coaching reinforces those principles by asking better questions, explaining the reasoning behind recommendations, challenging assumptions, and helping leaders recognize patterns that often take years to discover on their own.
In other words, the goal is to help leaders extract more learning from every experience they have, even when it’s an experience that comes from AI use.
That's very different.
Every organization has access to AI. Knowledge is fast becoming a commodity. Technology alone won't create a competitive advantage for very long.
Leadership wisdom and judgment will.
The organizations that separate themselves over the next decade will be the ones that intentionally capture the knowledge of their most experienced leaders and use AI to transfer that wisdom throughout the organization. They'll develop stronger leaders more quickly because they're helping people understand not only what to do, but why experienced leaders think the way they do.
That's the future I believe AI makes possible - helping leaders grow faster by making decades of leadership wisdom available exactly when they need it most. Not replacing leaders or trying to replace experience.
The hardest part of leadership development has never been learning the framework. It's applying it, in real time, under pressure, when the stakes are high and no one is watching.
That's exactly why I created Leadarity (short for leadership clarity) AI thinking partner built on the same system behind my book, Practical Leadership. Every concept in the book, from building trust and developing awareness to goal setting, leading projects, and building high-performing teams, is embedded in how Leadarity questions you, challenges you, and helps you think.
Dr. Marshall Goldsmith, Thinkers50 #1 executive coach and bestselling author of What Got You Here Won't Get You There, called Practical Leadership "a practical and actionable guide, grounded in real-world experience - not just theory, but a road map for real transformation."
Leadarity is what makes that road map available to you at 9pm on a Tuesday, when a real leadership challenge lands in your lap and you need to think it through before tomorrow morning.
If you're interested in bringing Leadarity into your organization or your own leadership practice, let's have a conversation. Schedule a call at janetply.me
And if you don't yet have the road map itself, pick up a copy of Practical Leadership on Amazon or your favorite local book store.
Janet Ply, PhD
Author, Practical Leadership ~ Creator, Leadarity AI Thinking Partner and the Practical Leadership System