Artificial intelligence has become a back-office powerhouse and essential resource for sifting through data, optimizing processes, and automating the repetitive. But as AI tools become more accessible, they are no longer just crunching numbers behind the scenes. Executives are increasingly turning to these platforms as a trusted advisor for providing strategic insight and informing business decisions.
Our recent survey found that nearly three-quarters (74%) of executives trust AI’s input over that of friends or colleagues. Even more striking, 44% said they would allow generative AI to override a decision they had already planned to make. These findings mark a profound shift in how leadership decisions are made.
Traditionally, executives have relied on a blend of data, gut instinct, and conversations with trusted advisors. Now, AI is earning a spot in the inner circle, signaling a fundamental redefinition of how leaders pair human insight with machine intelligence to drive better outcomes.
Chief AI Officer, SAP Americas.
AI as Strategic Co-Pilot
As companies prepare for an AI-focused future, business operations are being rewritten. Companies in every industry are looking for ways to incorporate AI that can help them build even the smallest competitive advantage. As a result, AI is taking on a new role as the C-suite’s strategic copilot, handling tasks like data analysis and recommendations (52%), uncovering hidden risks (48%) and presenting alternate strategic paths (47%).
AI is helping leaders go deeper—to challenge assumptions, test new scenarios, and make more informed decisions about how their business operates. But even in everyday life, AI is finding valuable and exciting uses, with some guardrails.
I’ve used it to help plan family vacations and generate personalized bedtime stories for my children. While it struggles to manage complex scheduling (and the nuances of how I manage my calendar), AI has transformed how I approach and solve many problems, offering a helpful sounding board for tasks in both my personal and professional life.
SAP CEO Christian Klein recently shared that he uses generative AI to preview quarterly earnings results and better understand company performance.
AI’s influence extends to other roles in the C-suite as well, from automated anomaly detection in financial transactions for CFOs, to streamlining contract reviews and generation of new contracts for CPOs, to COOs needing to evaluate capacity planning and manage variability in market demand.
And, of course, there is always the most common use case of all – summarizing complex documents and topics, and generating subsequent action items.
We’re far from alone. More leaders are beginning to incorporate AI into the highest levels of planning and forecasting.
Critical Thinking and the Human Touch
As AI’s influence in the boardroom grows, so does the trust leaders place in it. Part of this stems from AI’s growing ability to analyze massive volumes of data and provide contextually rich insights. In some situations, AI is usurping the guidance of near and dear advisors as previously mentioned. A trusted colleague might offer valuable perspective, but they haven’t parsed two billion data points before weighing in.
Still, there are limits. While executives should continue to use AI to help with business matters, there’s a risk that critical thinking will be lost rather than enhanced as a result. True strategic decision-making will always require a human touch—which AI can’t replicate.
Going forward, executives must strike a careful balance, keeping people involved to help make complicated and high-value strategic decisions, while using AI to enhance their thinking, not replace it.
Building a Foundation for Strategic AI Use
Such heightened reliance on AI will also force organizations to grapple with foundational challenges. The reality is that many companies still lack the reliable data infrastructure needed to support high-trust AI use. Lack of alignment between IT and business teams, patchy system integration and concerns about data quality all threaten to undermine the effectiveness of AI as a strategic advisor.
Companies must establish clear guardrails, like those below, to ensure these tools are used reliably and responsibly, balancing speed and scale with transparency and human input.
- Develop AI literacy across leadership through dedicated training and upskilling programs.
- Prioritize transparency by using platforms that can explain their reasoning in clear, understandable terms.
- Define boundaries for where and how AI should influence decision-making, particularly in ethically sensitive or high-risk areas.
Co-Creation: The Future of Leadership
As AI becomes a true collaborator in the boardroom, the goal isn’t to hand over control. It’s to elevate leadership. In this new era, great leaders won’t always have the right answer, but they will know when and how to ask the right questions—and where to turn for the best insights.
Going forward, we see leadership evolving from command-and-control to co-creation. Those who thrive will be the ones who understand how to blend human experience, emotional intelligence, and machine-derived insight into a cohesive and future-first strategy.
With AI as a loyal advisor, the possibilities for transformative leadership are just beginning.
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