I’m Jennifer Cohen, Co-Founder of Seven Stones Leadership, and this blog is based on a keynote I delivered at Mobius Executive Leadership’s annual Next Practice Institute (NPI) program in 2024. In today’s rapidly evolving technological landscape, artificial intelligence (AI) is no longer a distant future—it’s an immediate reality. My colleague, Dr. Karim Lakhani, Professor at Harvard Business School and founder of the D^3 Institute, has dedicated his career to researching innovation, digital transformation, and AI. Our recent conversations made it clear to me that leaders must urgently reframe their understanding of AI’s trajectory. This blog explores the key themes we discussed, shedding light on the existential questions AI presents and the necessity for proactive leadership.
A Call to Awareness: The Existential AI Crisis
Dr. Karim Lakhani has always been one of the most balanced, level-headed people I know. But recently, when he called me, his voice carried an urgency I had never heard before. He said, “If you’re not having an existential crisis as you look at these large language models, you’re not paying attention.” That got my attention.
AI is iterating at an unprecedented pace, far beyond what we expected. Despite the growing awareness of AI’s potential, many leaders remain woefully unprepared. During a CEO roundtable at Harvard Business School, Karim asked a group of executives: What are you most concerned about with AI? Their responses centered on market share, hidden AI usage within their organizations, and potential workforce reductions. These are important concerns and… they do not get at the deeper questions AI demands we ask.
AI’s Accelerated Evolution: A New Species Among Us?
Karim isn’t the only expert speaking this way. My colleague Valerie Pisano, CEO of Mila in Montreal, an organization dedicated to ethical AI development, echoed these concerns. Valerie works closely with Yoshua Bengio, a pioneer in AI research, and together, they’ve been exploring what it means to coexist with machines that possess superhuman reasoning, problem-solving abilities, and persuasive communication skills.
AI is not just a tool—it’s becoming an entity that influences human decisions and actions. As AI systems gain agency, we risk losing control over key decisions in democracy, national security, and the economy. The question we must confront is not whether AI will change our world—it already is—but how we will shape that change.
The Timeline: A 3- to 5-Year Window for Change
If you think this is something far off in the future, think again. Industry leaders predict that within the next three to five years, AI systems will reach or surpass human-level intelligence in multiple domains. The societal shifts we anticipated are already happening—manipulation through social media, disruptions in the financial sector, and shifts in judicial decision-making. We have a short window of time to adapt. We are being called to move now instead of waiting.
Beyond Market Share: The Questions Leaders Must Ask
Many leaders today are still focusing on traditional business concerns—profitability, competition, and workforce efficiency. But we need to be asking much bigger questions:
- Economic Order: What, if anything, in the current economic model will we need to change in AI? (Right now, 8 men have the same amount of wealth as 4,000,000,000)
- Social Order: Given the rise globally of authoritarianism, how can democracy be maintained in the age of AI, deep fakes and misinformation? Why does it matter as you think about leading into the future?
- Organization of Labor: AI is slated to radically transform the labor market and the future of work. As this process unfolds, what does that mean for the structure of your organization and of people’s jobs overall?
- Labor Itself: What is the future of work and its purpose? Is it to produce? To be fulfilled? Something else?
- What is uniquely human? Why does it matter that you have something to say about that as a leader?
- Technology is changing us. These technologies are changing our thinking processes, and our relationships to ourselves and others. How is that relevant to your leadership? How will you shape how technology is used?
- Purpose of Life: Why are we here? What does that have to do with how you lead now?
These are not abstract or philosophical questions—they are urgent, strategic imperatives that will determine the course of our future.
If AI is reshaping our world, then we must rethink the very foundations of how we lead. In Part II, we’ll explore how to move beyond the status quo and reimagine a future guided by ethical leadership and Sustainable Abundance. You can read Part II here.
If these questions intrigue you, I invite you to watch my full discussion (starts around the 9:15 mark) with Dr. Karim Lakhani and Valerie Pisano.
FYI: ChatGPT was used in translating the talk into this written piece.