How Can Brands Use AI Without Losing Trust?Before adding AI to a product or experience, leaders should ask: Is it solving a real problem—or are we using AI simply because we can? That question becomes especially important in fields where trust and human connection matter. Harvard Business School Associate Professor Julian De Freitas explains that customers are sensitive to superficial uses of AI. The strongest applications offer something genuinely useful that wouldn’t be possible o...
AI Wants to Agree with You. Leaders Need to Push Back.AI can be very good at giving you an answer that sounds right. But it’s not always the answer you want or need. Wade Foster, cofounder and CEO of Zapier, points to a problem leaders should keep in mind: AI models can tend toward pleasing the person asking the question, which can produce recommendations that reinforce what you already want to hear. His approach is to explicitly ask AI to debate him and critique his thinking, with t...
Leaders, Here's How to Keep AI From Diluting Your VoiceAI can make communication faster and more polished. It can also make everyone sound a little more alike. For leaders, that creates a challenge: How do you use AI without losing the voice, personality, and vulnerability that make people want to listen to you? Stanford’s Matt Abrahams, host of Think Fast, Talk Smart, argues that some of the imperfections we often try to eliminate—an occasional filler word, a hesitation, or a glim...
How Should CEOs Spend Their Time?The demands on a CEO’s time can be endless. As the former CEO of Disney, Robert Iger had a simple test for deciding what deserved his attention: Will my involvement make a difference? He prioritized the responsibilities only he could handle, major decisions affecting the business or its brand, and work where he could add unique value. Everything else was a candidate for delegation. Iger shares more lessons from leading Disney in a conversation with Ni...
When Should CEOs Take a Public Stand?When should a CEO speak out on a public issue? Longtime Disney CEO Robert Iger says leaders need to be clear about why they’re taking a position and how it connects to the interests of the company, its shareholders, and its people. In a wide-ranging conversation with Nitin Nohria, former dean of Harvard Business School, Iger reflects on the leadership lessons he learned at Disney, from making bold bets under pressure to protecting creative excelle...
Bob Iger: Power, Succession, and Leading Disney Through UpheavalFew executives have had to make as many high-stakes calls, over as many years, as former Disney CEO Bob Iger. In this conversation with former HBS dean Nitin Nohria, Iger shares what he’s learned about the decisions that really belong to the CEO: where to spend your time, when to step into a problem, when to get out of the way, how to shape culture, and how to lead when crisis becomes a constant. Drawing on ideas from his...
A Tech CEO on What Leaders Shouldn't Delegate to AIAs teams hand more work over to AI, leaders have a new judgment call to make: What should AI handle—and what do employees still need to know how to do themselves? Wade Foster, cofounder and CEO of Zapier, warns that delegating too much can create a “comprehension gap.” Employees may produce the work, but when they’re asked to explain it, investigate further, or answer questions, they may discover they no longer understand the su...
The One Thing AI Should—and Shouldn't—Do For LeadersAI can help leaders communicate more effectively. But that doesn’t mean every part of communication should be handed over to it. Matt Abrahams, a lecturer in organizational behavior at Stanford Graduate School of Business, draws a clear line: Don’t automate empathy. For high-stakes communication, however, AI can be a useful tool. Leaders can give it context about their audience and ask it to help make a message tighter, more s...
How Is AI Changing People Management?How can HR help organizations navigate the people side of AI transformation? Paula Goldman, Salesforce’s chief ethical and humane use officer, argues that HR functions have an important role to play in shaping how AI changes people management. AI can help give managers more evidence to inform performance decisions, identify employees’ skills, and connect people with projects or learning opportunities that prepare them for what’s next. The opp...
What Work Should AI Take On—and What Should Stay Human?As AI takes on more work, leaders face a fundamental management question: What should AI handle, what should humans and AI do together, and what should remain fundamentally human? The common rule of thumb—give AI routine work and leave complex work to people—only gets you so far. Paula Goldman, Salesforce’s chief ethical and humane use officer, says leaders also need to consider factors like customer and employee preference...
HBR IdeaCast Special Series: How AI Is Changing LeadershipAI is no longer a novelty for organizations. The harder questions are about what follows: How should leaders rethink decisions, expertise, and the way teams work together? In a four-part HBR IdeaCast series, Alison Beard and Adi Ignatius talk with leaders and experts about what AI is changing across culture, talent, communication, innovation, and strategy. New episodes arrive weekly from September 17 through October 8. What new ...
The 3 Forces Changing How Multinationals CompeteFor multinational companies, the next major source of growth may come from developing products for emerging markets first. On HBR IdeaCast, Vijay Govindarajan points to three forces making this shift increasingly urgent: 1. Growth is slowing in wealthy countries. 2. Companies in emerging markets are developing innovations that could disrupt incumbents on their home turf. 3. Rising affordability pressures are creating demand for lower-co...
Want to Reach New Markets? Start with the Right Team.How can leaders find the right people to tackle their toughest innovation challenges? Start by looking beyond the employees formally responsible for innovation. People working closest to a problem often have context and insights that senior leaders lack. Amos Winter, professor of mechanical engineering at MIT, explains how leaders can unlock those ideas: Give employees the tools and opportunities to examine problems from their own va...
Why Great Turnarounds Start with Culture, Not StrategyWhat does it really take to turn around a company in the middle of massive disruption? In this episode of HBR IdeaCast, Verizon CEO Dan Schulman explains how he approached the challenge of leading the company into the AI age. He shares why putting customers—not engineering—at the center of the business required a fundamental shift in culture, how leaders can prepare employees for an AI-native future, and why successful transformat...
The Biggest Barrier to Reverse InnovationWhy do established companies struggle to innovate for emerging markets? The biggest barrier may be the organization’s own dominant logic. Its systems, processes, incentives, and capabilities were often built to create premium products for customers in wealthy countries—not solutions shaped by the constraints and needs of developing markets. In a recent HBR IdeaCast episode, Vijay Govindarajan explains why succeeding at reverse innovation req...
AI Disruption Is Coming. How Should Leaders Prepare?As AI capabilities advance, leaders may not be able to predict exactly how work will evolve. But they still need to prepare employees for what’s ahead. Verizon CEO Dan Schulman tells HBR editor at large Adi Ignatius why the company established a $20 million fund for AI reskilling and training—and why he believes it may need to invest two or three times as much over the next two years. For Schulman, preparing for AI disruption mean...
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