The Future of Executive Leadership

The executive role was built for a world of information scarcity. AI is systematically dismantling the advantages that made executives valuable — data access, analytical horsepower, and institutional knowledge. So what remains? In this episode, Dr. Marilyn Carroll names the three capabilities that become the new executive premium in an AI-augmented world: systemic judgment, narrative leadership, and moral stewardship. Drawing on McKinsey's January 2026 research, MIT Sloan, and Harvard Business School, this episode is a direct challenge to every senior leader: if you stripped away what AI can now do, what would be left? Whatever the answer — that's your value proposition for the next decade. This episode helps you develop it.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:38

Hi there and welcome back to Two Doctors in a Twist. I'm Dr. Marilyn Carroll. And as I stated, in the last of 10 of 12 episodes, Dr. Jamie is on special assignments. That's what she's not with us at this time. And um, this gave us the opportunity to talk about um AI and its role. And on our last two episodes, this is one of them, I'm going to talk about the future today of executive leadership. And then our final episode, we'll close that out as the 12 episodes. Now, these last few episodes, since um we're expecting um the book I wrote, AI Governance, to be out um May 27th on the market. We um it's a great book. And if you haven't um, we want to make sure you get your purchase in for that book. And hopefully everything lines up and it's ready by May 27th for you, which is a few days. The book cover, uh, the foreword is written by a very dear friend of mine, uh, Miss Gail Daniels, who is the ex-COO of Hong Song, as well as some other companies. Very, very, oh my gosh, this lady, I look through her. Uh she embodies what leadership is all about in all different ways. And then um, also compliments from Dr. Posner, Posner Posner, who's I am Posner, uh, the leadership challenge. Um, he wrote an endorsement for the book, and I'm grateful for that as well. So, episode 11, the future of executive leadership. The executive role was built, as you know, for a world of information scarcity, from a world of information scarcity. AI is systematically dismantling the advantages that made executives valuable, uh, which is um data access, analytical horsepower, and institutional knowledge. So, what remains? In this episode, I'm going to um name three capabilities that become the new executive premium in an AI-augmented world: systematic judgment, narrative leadership, and moral stewardship. Those are the three. Again, systematic capabilities, systematic judgment, narrative leadership, and moral stewardship. Drawing on McKinsey's January 26th research in MIT Sloan and Harvard School of Business. Excuse me. This episode is a direct challenge to every senior leader. If you stripped away what AI can do now, what would be left? Whatever the answer, that's your value proposition for the next decade. Now excuse me. This episode helps you develop it. The executive advantage used to be information, access to it, control of it, and the ability to analyze it faster than others. That's what made executives valuable. AI just removed that advantage. And most leaders are still operating as if it's in tech. Think about what executive value was built on: information access, analytical capability again, institutional knowledge, network advantage. Those were the four. And so for decades, those created authority. But now, AI can access more information, analyze faster, identify patterns instantly, and generate insights at scale. So if leadership is still defined by those things, then leadership is already being replaced. Really? Not by AI taking the role, but by AI removing the advantage. So, what are you talking about, Marilyn? Where's the proof? Where's the proof in this? Well, let's ground this in what we're seeing. Again, research from Mackenzie and Company identifies a new executive premium. What's the premium? A resilience. Learning from mistakes is B, and C is the ability to work alongside AI systems. At the same time, Harvard Business Review or Harvard Business School research shows most executives are still in the earliest stages of AI leadership maturity. And Gartner projects that by 2026, by this year, 40% of enterprise applications would include AI agents. So the environment is shifting rapidly, but leadership models are not. There are three new premium capabilities that I that we see with AI. So, what replaces the old executive advantage you may be asking? There are three capabilities, again, that define the future of leadership. And I'm going to say those again, so write them down, but I'm going to go a little bit deeper this time, okay? Systematic judgment, not just making decisions, but understanding how decisions interact across systems, people, technology, and outcomes. AI can optimize locally, but it cannot integrate globally globally. That requires judgment, right? Narrative leadership. What the heck is narrative leadership, Marilyn? Well, in a world of constant change, people need meaning, not just data. So leaders must be able to say what is happening, what it means, and what we are going to do. Let me say that again. What is happening, what it means, and what we're going to do. Because without narrative, uncertainty becomes instability. Now, a lot of you are wondering why you're getting these marks from your people saying you don't know, you don't understand what's happening. This may be why you're not telling the story properly. So the third thing is moral stewardship. This is the one most leaders underestimate. What is moral leadership, Maryland? Well, AI can influence decisions, but it cannot carry responsibility. Only leaders can do that. This aligns directly with the foundation of human governed AI. Responsibility for decisions must remain human, guys. So the executive role becomes not decision maker alone, but decision owner. Yeah. So let's say what's the executive day of the future? What does that look like? Since you're saying we're the leader is now the decision owner. We're going to make this as practical as possible. Okay. What will executive actually do? Well, this is what they won't do. They'll spend less time on analysis, reporting, and information gathering, because that will be more expeditious, uh, expeditious process with AI. So, but what they are going to spend time on is aligning systems, holding accountability, shaping culture, guiding decisions under uncertainty. That's a big change. That's a transformational change, as we call it in the world of leadership. Because the question shifts from what does this data say? to what do we do with it? And that's important. And that answer, it cannot be automated. You can't automate what are we going to do with this data? You don't know what you're going to do with the data unless you have so much information in a system. Every download out of your brain is there, your company is there, and every operating person in the company is there. So let's step into a real scenario and see what that leadership decision moment will look like. So an executive team reviews an AI-generated strategy, okay? The analysis is strong, the projections are clear, the recommendation is compelling, and the room looks to the leader and says, and the that the leader has a choice. And the leader's choice is what? Approve it based on the analysis or step back and ask, What are we not seeing? What are the second order effects of this? And what are the unintended consequences? That moment, that moment, that moment right there, that's systems judgment. That's what that looks like. And that's what separates leadership from analysis. What leaders must let go, and here's the part most executives will resist to move forward. You must let go of what used to define your value. Being the smartest person in the room, controlling the information and holding analytical authority, because AI does those things for you. And if you hold on to them, if you hold on to them, you limit your own evolution, people. What leaders must bill instead is judgment over analysis, meaning over information, and responsibility over delegation. And this is where leadership becomes not replaceable, but essential. So you may be asking, how do I do this judgment over analysis? Well you're gonna have to know information enough about your company. It is not that you won't need to be in school or learn things, learn how something should look, understand what it does. You have to be smarter than you were before. At the same time, your moral compass, you must understand meaning over information. What does this mean? What does it what could happen from this information? How would it impact the company, the community, the universe in which it operates in? What does that mean? Because you have responsibility over delegation of that system and how it gets inputted, operated, acts. Yeah, you have responsibility. And whether you believe that or not, that is the thing. And that's what you as a leader will be held accountable for in the future over governing the system that you operate, that your company operates. So this brings us together to this point, guys. AI is not defining leadership by replacing it, it's redefining leadership by moving everything that wasn't essential. And what remains is what leadership actually is: judgment. Yeah. Trust, responsibility. What is leadership? Judgment, trust, and responsibility. We must trust you, know what you're doing. You must have the right judgment in order for us to trust you. And you must take on the responsibility that's been given to you in this new role that you're being paid for. So the question no longer is, what role will AI play in my organization? It's the question is, the question is, I repeat, what role will I play in an AI-driven system? So before we move to the final episode, I want to reflect on this. What part of your leadership is being replaced? I want you to think about that. What part is becoming more important? And what are you still holding on to that no longer serves you? Because controlling people is not it. Controlling every process, delegating, micromanagement, none of that is you. It never was. But understanding, like I said in my story last episode about my role, maybe it's two episodes ago, about my role as a movie theater manager in high school and in 12th grade, yeah, yeah, is was deeper, and I understood that than the people who make me manager. It may have been exciting at first, but for a young person managing something that they know nothing about, and I'm not saying that's every young person, it takes a lot of wisdom and character to become the leader we must become. Okay. Um my mom has this quote. She said, Sometimes we don't understand something until we pay for it, and we have the receipts to show we paid for it. That's demonstrating experience and skills through actions, through something that happened. And she said, the balt sense, the best sense is the balt sense, and I believe that. Because when you have balt sense, not dollars you paid to go to school with, but balt sense is that sense of pain that you paid to get to where you are. That's important. And a lot of people don't realize that. But balt sense is some of the best sense you'll ever have. Because when you buy it, you oh my God, you have dealt with some pain. And that is some of the best sense you could have. So I didn't have any balt sense at that time at 18. I was responsible for going to school, getting my education, and paying for my expenses because my parents didn't have, or my mother, who was a single parent, didn't have that to pay for all the activities I wanted to be in part of so that I could grow and develop. So I had to work in order to pay for those things. I don't think my mom bought clothes for me after I hit the ninth grade. I bought all my clothes, I bought my books, I paid for every activity I had to do. That's a more bald sense there because nothing in my life has come easy. And I've had to pay for it one way or another. I've made mistakes, and we all do. We all make mistakes, but that's what people with character and leadership have done and wisdom. They have paid for their mistakes some type of way. So as I close this episode and we bring everything together: governance, accountability, leadership, learning, workforce, and workforce, all of those. Governance, having it within your system is about accountability, it's about leadership, it's about learning, and it's about your workforce. And we answer the question this entire series has been building toward. What still matters when this is automated is those things the governance, the accountability, the leadership, the learning, and the workforce. I'll see you in our final episode of this series on two doctors and a twist. Thank you.