Why Functional Leaders Fade and Vital Leaders Rise with AI
Artificial intelligence (AI) is no longer a side project in the corporate world. From forecasting demand to screening résumés, AI now sits inside daily decisions that shape profit, efficiency, and culture. The real question for leadership teams is not “Will we use AI?” but “How do we use it well?”
The answer depends less on the technology itself and more on the people leading its use. In an AI-enabled world, there is a widening gap between functional people—those who execute tasks and follow process—and vital people—those who bring judgment, connection, and creativity where machines cannot. AI accelerates efficiency, but it also exposes who is merely functional and who is truly vital.
A Deloitte survey found that 79% of executives expect AI to reshape their industry within three years. For leaders, the edge will not simply belong to those who adopt AI tools quickly, but to those who prepare their people to shift from functional to vital.
Comfortable vs. Strategic Authenticity
When introducing AI, many leaders lean on “comfortable authenticity”—being transparent, approachable, and open. This helps build trust but only takes teams so far. Strategic authenticity is the deeper discipline: choosing when and how to show vulnerability, explain tough decisions, and frame change in ways that inspire confidence.
Consider a mid-size logistics firm that tested AI for route planning. Drivers feared job loss. Instead of ignoring the concern, the operations chief invited ten drivers to pilot the tool and share their experiences. His move was both authentic and strategic—he acknowledged fear yet framed the experiment as an opportunity. Within a month, fuel spending dropped 12%, and delivery times tightened by 20 minutes. But the more important outcome was cultural: the team shifted from resistance to ownership.
The Cost of Staying Functional
AI exposes the limits of purely functional leadership. Algorithms are faster, cheaper, and more precise at task execution than any manager could ever be. Leaders who cling to functional ways of working—checking boxes, passing information, enforcing compliance—risk being sidelined, because AI can mirror or outperform those roles. What remains valuable is not function, but vision, influence, and discernment.
The Skills Stack That Builds Vital Leaders
To remain vital, leaders must build a broader skills stack that goes beyond technical literacy:
- Curiosity and critical thinking to challenge outputs instead of blindly trusting them.
- Ethical judgment to set guardrails where algorithms fall short.
- Storytelling and influence to bring people along on the change journey.
- Collaboration across silos to integrate human insight with machine intelligence.
- Resilience under change to remain steady while uncertainty accelerates.
These skills make leaders irreplaceable, not because they compete with AI, but because they elevate and humanise its use.
The Leadership Challenge: Co-Existing with AI
Here lies the hard truth: a purely functional leader cannot comfortably co-exist with AI. The technology will outpace them in efficiency and consistency. But a vital leader—one who practices strategic authenticity, builds the right skills stack, and enables others to thrive—creates value that no algorithm can replicate.
The future will not be about humans versus AI, but about functional leaders fading while vital leaders rise. Organisations that understand this distinction and invest in cultivating vital leadership will not only adopt AI successfully but also build resilient cultures where people and technology grow stronger together.
Join the Conversation at Leadership Learning Festival Singapore
On 17 October 2025, the Leadership Learning Festival Singapore brings together leaders across industries to explore Rewiring Leadership Presence in the AI era. Expect practical workshops, insights, and real conversations about purpose, culture, and influence in a world where AI shapes the rules.
👉 Save your seat here and get ready to lead with clarity, confidence, and foresight.
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