What Every Executive Needs to Know About Sustainability

Because sustainability is crucial for both business and society, executives require reliable resources to understand and implement sustainable business practices. Unfortunately, there is little guidance to help executives determine valuable sources, forcing them to identify relevant materials on their own, which is problematic because this domain is often unfamiliar to them. We address this problem by leveraging human and artificial intelligence to identify sustainability readings appropriate for executives. We surveyed business sustainability scholars for their recommendations and tested ChatGPT’s ability to generate recommendations, comparing its selections to those of our human experts. While the human experts provided a wide range of recommendations with limited overlap, we identified several central themes. In contrast, ChatGPT’s recommendations, while sometimes insightful, included instances of hallucination. Executives who rely on AI-generated reading lists may find themselves thwarted and frustrated by nonexistent recommendations, emphasizing the importance of human expertise. Ultimately, our results provide guidance for business leaders seeking to deepen their understanding of sustainability while cautioning against overreliance on artificial intelligence.