And what it has to do with leadership

AI Everywhere — The Ubiquitous Hype

Wherever you look today—news, social media, industry publications, leadership magazines—the topic of Artificial Intelligence (AI) is everywhere. It is celebrated as the next major revolution, a breakthrough that will fundamentally transform our working world and society.

Leaders, in particular, feel called to become “AI-competent” as quickly as possible. Seminars and workshops on AI leadership are springing up everywhere. The message is clear: anyone who does not jump on the AI train now will fall behind.

One provider advertises: “Use AI now to strengthen your leadership role—before you lose relevance!”

But amid all this enthusiasm, a fundamental question arises:

Do we really understand what is happening?
Or are we overlooking what AI is actually doing?

What AI Really Does: Amplification Instead of Transformation

AI is often presented as a radical new beginning, something that creates the entirely new. In reality, it primarily amplifies what already exists. Algorithms like ChatGPT are based on billions of data points of human communication. Their task is to recognize patterns and generate the most likely next output.

The result is rarely fundamentally innovative—more often a sophisticated repetition at extreme speed. One comment in a chat summarized this sharply:

“ChatGPT is based on large models… the average of the average is the average. And doesn’t it do that perfectly?”

AI aggregates the mainstream. It reproduces common sense—the statistically normal. It is polished and scalable, producing mass-compatible content: standardized mediocrity, nicely packaged. At its core, it is repetition without origin, mass production without identity.

This tendency toward standardization is especially visible in language and style. Many have noticed that AI-generated texts sound surprisingly smooth. Edges are missing. The words are correct, but read like formulas. Thoughts become streamlined. Decisions become predictable.

Research confirms this impression: AI-generated leadership messages are perceived by employees as less authentic and less persuasive. The reason lies in how language models work: they select the most probable next word. Rarely wrong, but often normed, average, and without position or stand.

In other words: AI rewards surface coherence, not truth or originality. It delivers what is plausible, not what is inspired. That makes it a perfect tool for efficient systems—but toxic for uniqueness.

Efficiency vs. Uniqueness — When Algorithms Take Over

Why does AI threaten diversity and uniqueness? Because it is optimized for efficiency and repeatability. Uniqueness, by definition, is inefficient. It cannot be replicated, templated, or scaled at will.

In a world where processes and content are increasingly standardized by AI, deviation falls behind. What stands out, what diverges, becomes less “compatible” with the system and is filtered out. The risk: originality disappears. What remains is the agreeable and expected. Authority without origin. Presence without identity.

In this sense, AI acts as a catalyst for the standardization of humans. This may sound exaggerated, but it touches a sensitive point: when everyone uses the same tools trained on the same data, what they produce converges into uniformity. AI brutally exposes where we have already been standardized. It mirrors existing conventions and conditioning—and amplifies them.

Language becomes overly smooth. Deviating opinions and sharp edges are flattened. AI excels at pattern recognition but performs poorly at genuine novelty.

Creative outliers and real innovation do not come from the average. They come from the courage to be different. But difference does not fit a system built on maximal conformity to data.

AI in Leadership: New Framing, Same Content?

It is paradoxical that leaders are now being sent to AI training programs to become “future-ready.” Terms like AI leadership, AI competence, and AI mindset are spreading.

The message: leadership must be redefined as the ability to use AI tools efficiently and delegate decisions to algorithms. Guides, courses, frameworks, certifications—everything is offered.

But a closer look reveals that much of this is behavioral adaptation, not creating meaning. It is technology training: how to use ChatGPT, how to interpret AI analytics, where risks and opportunities lie. Useful, yes. But training alone does not create leadership.

Rarely is the fundamental question asked:

Who am I as a leader, at my core—beyond anything AI can replace?

Instead of focusing on human essence, the emphasis is on adapting behavior to tools. The old pattern repeats itself in a new costume. Another hype. Another wave of frameworks and certificates.

Understanding AI is necessary. But leadership has never been purely technical competence. Anyone who led only through expertise or management was already a weak leader and AI will merely expose that. In fact, AI will reveal those who led primarily through role and façade.

Leadership in the Age of AI

The truth behind the AI hype is simple:

AI makes everyone without an inner core look the same.
And it exposes who has one.

In a world where information, presentations, and even empathy formulas can come from machines, authenticity becomes radically visible. Employees and customers sense whether a person speaks with conviction and personality—or simply runs an AI-assisted leadership simulation.

Studies suggest that excessive sterile correctness in communication breeds mistrust. Real leadership does not come from perfect tool execution, but from rootedness in origin: values, convictions, identity.

A leader without clear identity and principles becomes replaceable. If decisions follow templates and communication is scripted, why should a human do it? Algorithms can do that.

Experts already predict that many management tasks will be automated. According to an IAB survey, 67% of typical leadership tasks could be taken over by algorithms. Former SAP CEO Bill McDermott predicts fewer management layers in the future, provocatively stating that the world will need fewer managers.

This is plausible. A profile-less manager who only administers will be replaced.

Conversely, a leader with a strong inner compass remains irreplaceable. AI will not make them faster or more efficient—but they remain essential. Vision, creativity, empathy cannot be generated by AI. Such leaders use AI as a tool but are not led by it. Their decisions arise from inner coherence, not data patterns. They understand technology but remain anchored in themselves. That creates presence beyond noise and information overload.

AI does not demand a new type of leadership.
It exposes what type of leadership has always existed.

It unmasks leadership built on conformity and role clichés. Anyone who acted from role scripts (“this is how a boss speaks”) now faces a mirror: such interchangeable leadership can be simulated by machines. What becomes visible is who decides from truth and values. This authenticity cannot be replicated by generative AI without being felt as artificial.

People sense the difference between a leader and a leadership role.

Conclusion: Conformity or Autonomy

The AI boom is less a technological revolution and more a test.

It does not force uniformity but it reveals who has already become uniform.

Everyone now faces a decision beyond technology:

• Standardization vs. Inner Core
  Do I follow algorithmic paths blindly, or return to creativity and intuition?
• Function vs. Identity
  Do I reduce myself to a function in the big corporate machinery, or act as a principle and value based individual?
• Noise vs. Presence
  Do I flood others with AI outputs, or create real influence through presence?

Leaders should not be blinded by AI rhetoric, but answer these questions honestly. The true challenge is not learning AI. It is rediscovering oneself.

Understanding technology helps. It does not replace your own voice and inner compass. Everything else is training. And training never replaces leadership.

The coming years will show who drifts profile-less in the current—and who stands as a distinctive captain.

AI can be a tool or a mask.

Ultimately, the decision is human.

A revolution is only a revolution if we consciously act differently from what the machine predicts. Out of uniqueness and identity.

The opportunity is here.

Now is the time for leadership from your inner core—
not merely with AI.

AI might change the rules of the game. How we respond to them is up to us.