While executives race to master AI, boards are rewarding leaders who have spent years building something far harder to replicate.
In almost every leadership conversation I have been part of over the last two years, AI comes up within the first ten minutes. Sometimes it is the whole conversation. Executives want to know how to use it, how to talk about it, how to signal that they are not behind on it. There is a palpable anxiety in the room—a fear of being the person who doesn’t get it, who gets left behind, who bets on the wrong tools or moves too slowly while everyone else races ahead.
