The impact of artificial intelligence on strategic leadership

The rise of artificial intelligence (AI) brings with it a broad range of challenges and opportunities for organizations. Likely constituting a strategic inflection point - a foundational change in the organizational landscape - strategic leaders may need to reconsider visions, strategies, and operational processes to guide their organizations through arising turbulence and uncertainty. In this chapter, the authors build on a systematic literature review to analyze the aspects of strategic leadership affected by the rise of AI and seek to describe how organizations benefit from AI, both in terms of developing new or improved products and services, as well as adapting internal processes and structures. They point out that strategic leadership will remain crucial in a future with AI, guiding organizations to actively choose between working with AI or towards an AI-centric organization, and that leaders must maintain a critical eye for potential economic and social pitfalls of algorithmic control.