Should senior leaders be expected to understand artificial intelligence well enough to lead with it One major organisation appears to think so...
Deutsche Bank recently completed a mandatory three-month AI training programme for 200 senior executives, including board members, investment bankers and traders. The programme focused not only on AI tools but on how leaders should navigate business transformation in the age of AI.
It raises an increasingly important question for organisations across every sector: Can leaders effectively lead AI transformation without understanding AI themselves?
Leadership cannot be delegated
Senior leaders do not need to become AI engineers. But they do need enough understanding to ask the right questions such as:
- Where can AI create genuine value?
- What risks does it introduce?
- What does it mean for our workforce?
- What skills will we need?
- How should accountability work?
- And how will we know whether our investment is actually delivering results?
If senior leadership cannot engage with those questions, responsibility for AI strategy may end up being pushed down to technology teams without sufficient strategic oversight.
AI literacy is becoming a leadership skill
The definition of leadership capability is changing. Digital transformation has already required leaders to become more comfortable with data, technology and rapid organisational change. AI adds another layer because it can influence decision-making, customer interactions, workforce structures and everyday tasks.
This means AI literacy is increasingly relevant even for leaders who will never personally build or deploy an AI system. They need to understand enough to lead responsibly.
What should senior leader AI training cover?
Effective leadership development could include:
- AI fundamentals and current capabilities
- strategic applications of AI
- AI risks and governance
- data protection and confidentiality
- workforce and job redesign
- change management
- AI-related skills planning
- responsible decision-making
- evaluating AI investment
- communicating AI change to employees
The emphasis should not be on learning every new tool. It should be on developing the judgement to decide when, where and how AI should be used.
A new leadership expectation?
Deutsche Bank's approach may prove to be an early example of a wider shift. As AI becomes more deeply embedded in organisations, boards and senior leadership teams may increasingly be expected to demonstrate AI literacy in the same way that they are expected to understand financial performance, risk and organisational strategy.
The question for organisations may therefore soon change from:
"Do our employees need AI training?" to "Does our leadership team know enough about AI to lead the organisation through what comes next?"
That is a leadership development question worth answering now.
