Day 27 · Act V — Lead for the Future
Leading in the AI Era
Human judgement · Augmentation · Governance · Redesign
~35 minutes
Machines can predict; only leaders can decide what is worth predicting.
The Core Idea
AI shifts the scarce resource from information to judgement. Leaders must decide where to augment people, where to automate tasks, and where human discretion is non-negotiable.
Governance matters: data quality, bias, accountability and transparency. Organisational redesign matters too — roles, skills and workflows must evolve, not just tools.
The Mental Model
Prediction vs Judgement
From Agrawal, Gans and Goldfarb's Prediction Machines: AI lowers the cost of prediction, raising the value of judgement.
At work: AI predicts which customers may churn; leaders judge which retention offers align with brand and ethics.
The Case Study
Algorithmic hiring tools
DocumentedReuters reported in 2018 that Amazon scrapped an experimental recruiting tool after finding it disadvantaged women.
Interpretation: AI trained on historical data can encode historical bias; governance must precede scale.
Cinema & Story
AlphaGo (documentary) (2017)
AI can reveal moves humans never imagined — and humility is part of leading alongside it.
The Reading Room
Co-Intelligence
Ethan Mollick
A practical guide to working, teaching and leading with AI.
Further reading: Prediction Machines — Agrawal, Gans & Goldfarb
The Journal · Portfolio output: Human-AI leadership principles
The Field Experiment · within 24 hours
Use an AI tool on one real task and document where your judgement changed the output.
The Evening Review
Augment the mind; never outsource the conscience.