Why Using AI Is an Imperative for Business Leaders

As a business leader, if you're told a tidal wave of change that will impact every aspect of your business is coming, when would you begin prioritizing gaining some foundational knowledge about that change?

When Geoff Woods, author of The AI-Driven Leader: Harnessing AI to Make Faster, Smarter Decisions, interviewed over 200 leaders for his book, 100% of them said that AI was the future and that they would adopt it, but less than 5% had done anything with AI.

This was similar to his initial response to AI: “I'm so busy. I'll get to it later, or maybe I'll delegate this to my tech team.”

However, Woods believes this approach is dangerously shortsighted, rooted in leaders mistaking AI as a technology challenge rather than a leadership priority. The difference is recognizing that the urgency isn't about the technology. It's about the people who wield the technology and how they use it.

For example, early on, Woods realized instead of asking ChatGPT to help him write better emails, he should be using AI for what matters most to him as a leader, “How might I use AI to elevate my ability to think strategically or make faster, smarter decisions?”

This shift in perspective changed everything. Woods realized leveraging AI wasn't about asking the technology questions but about having AI ask him questions.