Leading GenAI-Equipped teams: Recalibrating leadership in the age of generative artificial intelligence

We explore how generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) affects leadership in knowledge-intensive environments, examining both short- and mid-term impacts. Drawing on findings of an in-depth case study within a large insurance company, we identify that short-term impacts mirror traditional technology adoption challenges while mid-term impacts require significant shifts in leaders’ role, leadership style, and skills due to changing work content and organization. Leadership can no longer be understood solely through human-centered lenses. Instead, it must be extended to account for the interdependencies between humans and GenAI, requiring a shift in the nature of leadership to navigate and orchestrate teams rather than to manage and control them. Leaders must evolve from functional experts to orchestrators of human–AI collaboration, ensuring the best fit between human employees and GenAI and embodying employee-centric leadership. Our results provide empirical evidence to help managers proactively recalibrate their leadership practices to realize the promised efficiencies of GenAI sustainably. Based on this, we emphasize the need for future research exploring the GenAI-driven recalibration of leadership.