A founder friend confessed to me recently: he spends more time wrangling team dynamics than fretting over product roadmaps or tech stacks.

The irony? His team has access to all the latest AI tools—chatbots, copilot assistants, automated dashboards. But it’s still people, not software, that stall momentum when things get ambiguous or fast-moving.

This isn’t a fluke. AI will handle increasingly complex logistics and number-crunching. What matters now (and even more in the post-AGI world) is leading teams who are human—uncertain, motivated by meaning, skeptical when change gets real.

The hardest part: letting go of the myth that “if everyone just uses AI smartly, everything clicks into place.”

The real shift for leaders isn’t about mastering more tools—it’s about learning to steer cultures in constant flux. Human trust, the ability to create clarity amid chaos, the skill to ask better questions than any LLM can—these are now the differentiators.

Treat AI as an expert on tap, not a replacement for human direction. Strategy, ambiguity, guidance—they’re not getting automated away.

The teams that thrive will be the ones led by people who coach adaptability, build psychological safety, and stay relentlessly curious about what only humans notice.

Worth pausing to ask: in your organization, is the leadership playbook keeping pace, or just the tech? Read More