We still have a big advantage over AI. I call it ‘human junk code.’

When you read the findings from Hult Ashridge’s research, The Six Shifts: What Better Leadership Really Means (which will be published on 27^th November), it’s the particularly human qualities and behaviors – such as empathy, care and authenticity – that people agree make better leaders.

But in the future, could Agentic AI (which is essentially the kind that can operate on its own with minimal human supervision) be a better boss than any human, if you want a helpful boss who tailors everything to your every need, is fascinated by your input, gently coaches you, and never keeps you waiting?    

In short, no – instead, I think AI can really help us get better at leading. Partly it is because if leaders can learn to use it as well as their junior colleagues are already doing, they will be freed up to spend time actually leading people, in the way that the research findings suggest is required.

But most importantly, if you look closely at where humans still have a competitive advantage over AI, you see a wonderful list of leadership competences that will never date, and which will be needed as long as there are still people at work. Indeed, they are the key to how we might also tell when AI is reaching its limits, so that humans can intervene and make wise control decisions.     

This list is discoverable by looking at things the wrong way round. What have we NOT programmed into AI?

First, Free Will. If you think about it, it is a disastrous design choice. Letting creatures do what they want is highly likely to lead to their rapid extinction. So it would be extremely wise to design in some risk mitigation.  

Hence Emotion. Humans are a very vulnerable species because their young take nine months to gestate, and are largely helpless for their first few years. Emotion is a good design choice because it makes these creatures bond with their children, and in their communities, to protect the vulnerable.  

Next, you design in a Sixth Sense, so that when there is no clear data to inform a decision, your species can use their intuition to access wisdom from the collective unconscious, which helps de-risk decision-making.  

Then we need to consolidate this by designing in Uncertainty. A capacity to cope with ambiguity will stop them rushing into precipitous decision-making, and make them seek out others for wise counsel.  

And if their design leads them to make Mistakes? Well, they will learn from them. And mistakes that make them feel bad will develop in them a healthy conscience, which will steer them away from repeated harms in future.  

Now that we have corrected their design to promote survival, what motivators are needed for their future flourishing? Well, they will need to want to get out of bed on a dark day, so we fit them with a capacity for Meaning-making, because a species that can discern or create meaning in the world will find reasons to keep living in the face of any adversity.  

And to keep the species going over generations? We design in a superpower of Storytelling, because stories allow communities to transmit their core values and purpose, down the generations, in a highly sticky way. Stories last for centuries, future-proofing the species through the learned wisdom of our ancestors, and the human species prevails.