Leadership Blind Spots in the Age of AI

The teams struggling most with AI don’t have a tooling problem.They have a leadership one.

Many organizations adopted AI expecting faster execution, sharper thinking, and better outcomes. And on the surface, it looks like that’s exactly what’s happening. Decks are more polished. Emails are clearer. Processes feel tighter. Even task lists look more strategic.

Objectively, the work looks better.

But when you step back and look at the actual value being created for the business and for customers, something feels off. Despite all this improvement in output, impact often feels flat. In some cases, it even feels slower than before.

This is the realization I’ve been sitting with lately, and it’s hard to ignore once you see it.

Decisions are taking longer to make. Ownership feels increasingly unclear. In one-on-ones and team meetings, everyone is busy, often overwhelmingly so. And when everyone is busy, it becomes almost impossible to tell what’s actually driving results versus what simply looks productive.

AI isn’t the root cause of this problem, but it is amplifying it.

What’s missing in many teams isn’t capability. It’s intention. There’s often no shared standard for what “good” looks like, no embedded guidance to shape thinking, and no real forcing function for focus. Before AI, friction played an important role. Work took effort. That effort forced prioritization. Pain and constraint acted as signals that prompted better questions and clearer decisions.

When everything becomes easy and effortless, those signals disappear.

Without friction, teams stop asking “why.” They stop pushing for clarity around value. Activity starts to replace progress, and output becomes the proxy for effectiveness. The work keeps moving, but the direction gets fuzzy.

This isn’t a criticism aimed outward. I’ve caught myself doing this too. Approving work because it sounds right. Nodding along because something is well-articulated. Letting momentum carry things forward without stopping to ask the harder question: What are we actually choosing here, and why?

That hesitation, that pause, is where leadership still matters most.

Teams should absolutely be using AI. It’s not optional, and it’s not the enemy. But leaders can’t outsource judgment. AI should act as a mirror, reflecting the quality of the thinking behind the work. When that thinking is sharp, AI makes it sharper. When it’s lacking, AI simply makes it louder.

More words. More slides. More motion. Less clarity.

This is why the most important question isn’t, “How do we use AI better?” The more useful question is, “Where do leaders need to slow things down and reintroduce focus?”

Clarity still takes work. Leadership still requires deciding. No tool can replace that.

If you’re seeing more output but less impact, it may be time to stop optimizing for speed and start designing for intention. Sometimes the most valuable thing a leader can do is slow thing down long enough for real clarity to emerge.