“Leadership Drift” Is Stalling Your AI Strategy

Morgan Blangeois () and Thomas Roulet ()
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Morgan Blangeois: CleRMa - Clermont Recherche Management - ESC Clermont-Ferrand - École Supérieure de Commerce (ESC) - Clermont-Ferrand - UCA - Université Clermont Auvergne
Thomas Roulet: University of Cambridge Judge Business School, Cambridge, United Kingdom.

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Abstract: Organizations often blame employees when AI adoption stalls, assuming resistance stems from fear or lack of skills. Research across 23 interviews and three leadership workshops in 11 European IT services firms points to a different obstacle: senior leaders. Executives often recognize privately that AI requires fundamental changes to pricing, staffing, and business models, yet abandon those positions during group discussions. The authors call this pattern "AI leadership drift," where reassuring narratives replace difficult strategic decisions. To counter it, leaders should ground discussions in their own data rather than industry hype, study how comparable firms are responding to AI, tie every AI initiative to a strategic question with a review date, and assign someone responsibility for keeping uncomfortable issues on the leadership agenda.

Keywords: generative AI; leadership; AI strategy; IT services firms; strategic decision-making (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026-08-11
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Published in Harvard business review, 2026

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:hal-05736368

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