The AI goes on the journey now that many other things have gone years ago. It looks like a small child that comes to tell us what is good or not. With the rise of different AI agents over the last two years, doomsday theories have also begun to emerge. More often, we hear about the impending doomsday of software, a personal and professional area of expertise, and even how AI will make leadership, coaching, and therapy obsolete. Although that theory may become true in the far future, what is now coming to people is far from the apocalyptic picture described by futurists, skeptics of the traditional way of thinking, and conspirators. From time to time, these theories and visions receive support from the CEOs of large companies, whose businesses are emerging and growing as they develop AI tools, methodologies, and products.
But no matter how disruptive the new reality looks, it may not be the apocalyptic horse rider who comes to kill everything traditional.
Look at the technological world:
- Tesla revolutionized the car industry, but didn’t kill the traditional car market;
- Apple revolutionized the smartphone world once, but didn’t gain total dominance and delete other brands directly.
- Google made a business case of being next to you when you need information, but that didn’t kill other search engines.
- Microsoft made the most popular operating system in the world, but that didn’t kill other OS makers.
And the list goes on…
What that means is that when something new comes out, people often react emotionally, trying to use it to solve all their pain or make their discomfort lower and less impactful for themselves, first, and then for others around them.
The same goes with AI. When it first became widely viral, the dream was to replace traditional search engines in a shorter time, make some roles obsolete, close workplaces, and help people stay organized and happy. A dream that is still in progress. Sixty-five years after the first AI model and 3 years after the first commercial launch, AI still hasn’t killed professions and can’t replace a large part of the traditional activities people used to do before it. Somehow, it made those activities less stressful without killing them. The last trend was at the beginning of 2025, when the CEO of a well-known AI company stood up and announced that the youngest generation in the world is relying more on AI to help with daily issues than on therapists, coaches, or even parents’ advice. And if that sounds awkward, then think again. Didn’t it already happen at the same time with the rise of the search engines – people moved to them to find information faster. Didn’t it happen with electronic books – people use them as a convenience when traveling, but they didn’t replace the physical books, and the list goes on.
Now we have another slogan: “AI will replace your coach and leader in many areas when an individual needs guidance and emotional support”. The CEO of OpenAI is highly active in promoting this “feature” of AI and its capability to “replace”. Although this sounds naïve and unprofessional, many people try to use AI to guide their lives and skip traditional techniques for growth. Some companies are ditching the Feedback as it has been used for many years, while others are starting to use AI tools that answer direct questions, etc. But with the implementation of AI tools, people move from following paths to reaching the final place in their journey in moments. Answers come directly and sound tempting to implement immediately upon receiving. And here is when people move back and stop putting effort. Nothing can stop them now, because the answer is a click away, written by a prompt they prefer and entered into the AI tool they use.
At the beginning of 2025, I asked 19 colleagues in the people area to collect information over 5 months on how AI actually helps. The scope of the projects was to identify the patterns that AI builds and how it affects individuals’ decisions about how they act on their growth paths, compared to the traditional way of consulting, giving feedback, and supporting a person. More than five months and 1,936 participants later, we collected enough information to help us build some understanding of where the AI stands in supporting individuals’ growth, alongside the traditional leadership approach used.
Some of these insights are below here.
AI helps productivity
No matter how scared a person can be, after looking from a different angle, AI helps people build on productivity. With overwhelming tasks, tight schedules, and agendas in the workplace, leaders expect more from employees. That creates tension and, in some situations, even makes people feel uncomfortable and drained. When leaders offer AI tools to help employees automate work, they create space. This space helps build balance across professional and personal areas of life. The best thing to do is not to demand more but to focus on how to educate people in using AI.
AI builds patterns for feedback.
No matter what a leader thinks, their judgment and feedback are subjective and based on patterns, tempo, quantity, and form they have already built into a perfect image in their heads. While this is the main form created, often people receive subjective feedback, filled with tension and “unfulfilled expectations”. Using AI in the process of building the feedback loop may significantly help leaders give the right direction that fulfills a more developmental agenda than punishing. It may mean that the leaders and even employees learn how to build scenarios and use prompts to describe to the AI what the final results look like, and based on the specifics of the environment and predefined behavior of the employee, to create different outcome scenarios to lower unpredictability in what the outcomes may be like. And with various scenarios and outcomes already predefined, it will be easier for both sides to form and accept the feedback given and received.
AI creates scenarios for winning.
Leaders often struggle to find time to explain their expectations to the same employee multiple times. With each successive try, the leader loses their patience, and the employee asks less, not because they understand, but because their Ego often says, “Stop asking, you will look incompetent.” Typically, based on these scenarios, the final result is insufficient and fails to deliver sufficient value. AI can’t solve all issues, but it may create options that resonate with an individual’s personal style of working and acting, helping them deliver the best possible results within their specific behavior and level of competence. With this step, and by learning to use AI to create a winning agenda across different scenarios, AI helps both leaders and employees stop investing time in tasks that add little to no value and move them toward productivity and efficiency tailored to their specific needs.
AI provides basic answers at a lower level of personal consultation.
Our research found that leaders invest considerable time delivering what we call psychological and emotional consultation. But with the deep dive into the topics, we also found that in about 54% of cases, the questions and guidance are specific to the role. In contrast, the issues are mostly general and mainly connected to the technical and challenging part of the role. That semi-mentorship-coaching relationship focuses on an area that helps execute the daily agenda, but does not add much value in the long run. Companies have something similar on their employee platforms, with sections that include questions and answers to help individuals with general topics like performance, internal rules, etc. But there is no such help in technical areas for different roles. Making AI a friend by defining different agents and lists of basic prompts may help the leader save time on low-value activities with individuals and focus more time on high-value activities, such as deep coaching and guidance on personal growth, while building emotional intelligence and behaviors.
AI makes it easier to do the job.
A struggle many people expressed during the data collection period is how to use AI to help with their daily agendas. On the list were simple creative activities, such as building a presentation, summarizing a text, missing the main points in a long call, calculating and representing financial data, etc. Using traditional methods to solve these may take a lot of time. In the current fast-paced environment, time is the most valuable resource. In previous, more conventional models, insights on what to do and how to do it came from a meeting with the leader for clarification. That ate up time for both the asker and the supporter. Helping with automation and training people to use automated flows within AI tools not only saves time but also creates a standardized, structured approach to acting based on the situation. Mini-guides replace leadership participation and save time for everyone. So, why not use them instead of stealing time from individuals and leaders for these activities?
AI helps build scenarios for development.
One thing that many leaders struggle with is helping their people build development agendas. Often, the good thoughts meet indifference or a lack of self-awareness about what the individual needs. In all these moments, there is a need to find the best solution and discuss it with the employee in the right way. But leaders are also people. They have their limitations, lack time for creative thinking, and don’t need to overthink the agenda for everyone they hire and lead. But no matter the effort, in some cases, the leader needs to be more active and to build the development agenda for the employee. Such is life. No matter all the theories about how a talent should be proactive in their development needs and searches. But in reality, that doesn’t work the way it’s written on paper. Here is the role of AI: a leader uses AI tools to help them build creative scenarios.
FINAL WORDS
The content here touched on how leaders can use AI to advance their agenda. AI is still far from delivering everything a person can do. However, used in the right way, it may be a helpful tool. It can rebuild the people and operational agenda that create more opportunities for development and wellbeing. It is up to the leader to decide how to use it – recklessly, wiser, or not at all – to deliver results in a balanced or unbalanced way.
The Human place - a path from you to yourself 