Artificial intelligence is becoming increasingly capable of performing many of the tasks that we have traditionally associated with human intelligence. It can analyse large quantities of information, identify patterns, summarise complex materials, generate ideas, compare alternatives and produce apparently well-reasoned recommendations in seconds.
These capabilities are developing rapidly. Inevitably, this raises questions about what people will contribute when machines can perform more of the cognitive work that once distinguished human expertise.
Perhaps we are asking the wrong question.
Rather than asking what humans can continue to do better than AI, we should be asking what becomes more valuable when sophisticated cognitive capability is readily available. The answer takes us beyond intelligence as simply the ability to process information and towards some distinctly human capabilities.
Thinking is not the same as deciding
Good decisions have never depended on information alone.
A leader can have access to excellent data, detailed analysis and several carefully considered options and still make a poor decision. This is because decision-making involves more than determining what is technically possible or statistically probable. It involves deciding what matters.
What are we trying to achieve? Who will be affected? What are the consequences? What compromises are acceptable? What values should influence the decision?
AI can contribute useful information to these questions. It can help us explore possibilities and challenge our thinking. But the responsibility for determining what matters remains a human one. As AI becomes better at providing answers, the quality of the questions we ask and the judgement we apply to those answers become increasingly important.
Judgement becomes more valuable
For much of our working lives, access to information has been a source of advantage. That is changing. We are moving into an environment where information, analysis and plausible recommendations can be generated almost instantly. The challenge is increasingly not obtaining an answer. It is determining whether that answer is useful, appropriate and worthy of our confidence.
Judgement requires context.
An AI-generated recommendation may appear perfectly reasonable while overlooking something that matters within a particular team, organisation or relationship. The technically strongest option may not be the most appropriate option when trust, timing, culture or previous experiences are taken into account. The more easily answers can be generated, the more valuable the ability to question them becomes.
Self-awareness matters more, not less
There is another complication. Human beings are not neutral decision-makers. We bring assumptions, preferences, biases, emotions and previous experiences into every decision we make. AI does not remove these influences.
Indeed, working with AI can introduce another one. We may reject its suggestions too readily because we distrust the technology. Alternatively, we may give its outputs more authority than they deserve because they appear confident, detailed and objective.
Self-awareness helps us recognise both tendencies.
It encourages us to ask why we are responding to a recommendation in a particular way. Are we questioning it because something genuinely does not fit? Are we accepting it because it confirms what we already believe? Are we challenging our assumptions as carefully as we challenge the technology?
Emotional intelligence becomes important here because good judgement starts with understanding ourselves.
Empathy provides something data cannot
AI can process information about people. It can identify patterns in behaviour, analyse sentiment and generate language that sounds understanding and supportive.
But information about another person is not the same as experiencing a relationship with them. Empathy involves making an effort to understand another person's perspective while recognising that their experience may be different from our own. This matters enormously in leadership.
A restructuring proposal may make impeccable financial sense while creating considerable uncertainty for employees. A performance decision may be supported by the available data while overlooking circumstances that become apparent only through conversation. A technically efficient change may fail because people do not understand it, trust it or feel involved in it.
Leaders cannot delegate these realities to an algorithm. The ability to listen, recognise emotional responses and understand different perspectives becomes more significant when technological capability makes other aspects of decision-making easier.
Adaptability is changing too
Adaptability is often discussed as our ability to cope with technological change. There is more to it than that. As AI becomes embedded in everyday work, adaptability will increasingly involve deciding how we work with it.
When should we use AI to extend our thinking? When should we question its output? When is efficiency the priority? When does a situation require conversation, reflection or human involvement?
These decisions will not always have straightforward answers.
People will need to become comfortable moving between human judgement and technological support rather than assuming that either one should always take precedence. Adaptability becomes the ability to adjust not only to the technology, but also to the changing relationship between people and technology.
The value of complementary intelligence
There is a temptation to frame developments in AI as a competition. What can humans do that AI cannot? Which jobs will AI replace? Who is more intelligent?
This framing risks missing a much more useful opportunity. Human intelligence and artificial intelligence do not have to perform the same role. AI can extend our capacity to analyse information, explore possibilities and test ideas. Human beings contribute context, judgement, empathy, self-awareness, values and responsibility.
These capabilities work together.
The most effective leaders will not be those who resist AI, nor those who hand their thinking over to it. They will be those who understand how to use its capabilities while recognising where their own human contribution matters.
As cognitive capability becomes increasingly available through technology, the qualities that enable us to use that capability wisely become more valuable. The future of work is therefore not simply about becoming better at using artificial intelligence. It is also about becoming better at being human.
When AI gets better at thinking, what becomes more valuable in humans is our ability to understand what thinking alone cannot tell us.
About the Author
Dr Robin Hills is the Founder of Ei4Change, an internationally recognised organisation dedicated to developing practical emotional intelligence for real-world situations. With more than 45 years' experience in leadership, learning and organisational development, Robin has helped over half a million learners in more than 200 countries strengthen their emotional intelligence through courses, coaching, workshops and keynote presentations. Through his writing, teaching and speaking, Robin's aim is to help people think better, lead better and work better through emotional intelligence.