How to lead when machines can do everything (except be human)

Computers now can write code, assess markets, prepare marketing campaigns, and carry out negotiation. As a leader, you must begin to ask yourself, where will we be when all of our people are no longer needed? Computers powered by AI can do nearly every task needed to run the technical aspect of an organization. Some in the field are sounding the alarm on potentially catastrophic effects to the labor market. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei recently warned that AI tools could eliminate half of entry-level, white-collar jobs and spike unemployment to as much as 20%.

But there is one indispensable thing machines can never do: Be human.

The future of leadership will be the result of working through this paradox.

Advances in hybrid intelligence

We are entering a time where machines and humans can join forces and work as one—aka hybrid intelligence. AI is being used as a tool by humans everywhere to enhance their abilities and productivity. Unfortunately, the fact that AI is primarily a tool and not a replacement for humans is not always well understood by the general public, or the workforce.

Simply putting artificial intelligence into a system isn’t enough for hybrid intelligence. How that AI is integrated is the crucial part. AI agents are not only used at the final stage of decisions, but they also partner with teams and sometimes even decide things by themselves. Because of this change, managers have to rethink their roles and how they control, supervise, and produce value.

Simply managing workflows is not enough for you to be a true leader anymore. Leadership in 2025 and beyond requires fitting humans, who supply feelings and ethics, together with technology that enhances the speed, reach, and uniformity of processes.

The human responsibilities in this era are not just crucial to the use of AI, they are the main ingredient to AI’s existence.

How to manage when AI rules the world

Last year, private investment in AI reached nearly $110 billion in the U.S. As AI agents quickly wrestle work away from us humans, how does management respond and truly lead? To lead organizations in the future, executives need to change how their org charts are written and begin focusing on human skills rather than divisions and ranks.

Always consider what only humans can do:

• Emotions and political skills require better understanding of people. AI falls short here.
• Strategic creativity is needed since innovation does not happen in a single direction. Only humans can make up the rules for games, rather than only focus on playing it faster.
• Visionary leaders work on coming up with stories, judging ethical issues, building trust with all parties, and planning for various threats.

Some organizations are choosing to build teams now based on personal qualities. What does the human bring that is unique? Are they open-minded enough to use AI instead of deeming it a threat? Are they experienced with the technology and do they see it as an advantage rather than a personal detriment? These are the questions leaders of this new reality will continually ask.

Traditional leadership is becoming increasingly irrelevant

Middle management teams are being slowly removed in many organizations as more and more work can be automated and less human hours are needed. I am not talking about this happening over the course of the next five years—I mean now. So, your methods of leading and coaching these types of teams are no longer needed.

But not all the needs for humans will disappear. Leaders must figure out, in their specific business, what human skills are most relevant to the success of the company. Identify the employees in your business who possess these skills or are agile enough to be coached up. These are the workers you focus your coaching and development skills on.

Then, leaders must sell this approach, in essence, to all the major stakeholders in their business. This ensures that stakeholder confidence in the business is strong and well-maintained. Part of this sell is informing stakeholders that what you are keeping your human workforce for is to find better ways to think about a problem, rather than simply finding the fastest answers.

Can your culture keep up with technology?

Technologically everything moves at an ever-increasing pace. Culture in leadership is always much slower. While the worldwide move to automation is happening now, the majority of C-suites are sticking to ideas from the 20th century.

We already see that up to 99% of Fortune 500 companies use automation in hiring and resume screening and that AI is being used in sales and markdoas well as in nearly every other part of work as we know it. So, leaders must adapt their approach.

A large part of leading and coaching in the future will be showing your teams the ways in which AI is being deployed to their benefit, not as their replacement. You will need to let them behind the scenes as you create and implement new automations. You need to show them not only how this AI will work, but also why it is being used to their and the company’s benefit.

Who the new leader needs to be

In order to succeed in this new environment, leaders must be the director of societal ethics in their company. They must decide what is an ethical use of AI and when they are about to cross the line of pushing for pure profit at any human cost.

They must paint the picture for their teams of the full AI vision and make that picture related to every employee they want to keep in the fold.

They must also lead to create—or allow space for their teams to create—innovative approaches that make machine operations meaningful for people. They have to then be the orchestrators and bring people, platforms, and processes together without just sticking to antiquated organizational charts.

With less middle management, there is less delegation. Leaders must be the ones with the soft skills to work across divides. Whether those divides be cross functional, age gaps, or personality differences, leaders must speak all of these languages to get their teams working together. This allows them to foster quick and steady solutions.

The humanity dividend

Machines will keep getting better—there is no slowing that train. They will handle writing, building, forecasting budgets, and giving advice. Leaders earn the greatest advantage by having qualities that machines do not: judgment, empathy, and imagination.

In this era of AI, leadership means judging situations rather than controlling them. It means standing firm and seeing clearly, and being able to see all potential outcomes and how they affect your people, because AI will not know the best path for humans. That is your job, to make the decisions that benefit the most important part of your business: your people.

The opinions expressed in Fortune.com commentary pieces are solely the views of their authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and beliefs of Fortune.

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