Strategic leadership at high altitude: Investigating how AI affects the required skills of top managers
通过对23位高管的访谈，识别出AI时代高层管理者所需的四种相互依赖的领导技能，并构建了一个多层级框架，对研究AI如何重塑战略领导力有参考价值。
As artificial intelligence (AI) becomes a core driver of organizational digital transformation, several studies emphasize the critical role of top managers. While prior research has examined the skills at the top levels in digital contexts, few studies differentiate the implications of diverse AI technologies for the strategic leadership skills of top managers. Drawing on upper echelons theory (UET), we conducted 23 interviews with senior executives across diverse industries. Our findings identify four interdependent leadership skills: 1) AI open mindset; 2) AI strategic co-thinker; 3) Multi-level connector; 4) Ethics risk management. We propose a multi-level framework that captures the interactive nature of these skills, operating across personal, organizational, and relational dimensions and shaped by top-down and bottom-up dynamics. The study, grounded in UET, contributes to the emerging debate on how AI reshapes top managers’ strategic leadership skills and introduces the enabling role of middle managers in AI transformation.