A leadership expert has shared his advice on the best way to use AI rather than fearing it.

Drew Povey, author and founder of the Drew Povey Consultancy says he doesn’t believe that AI will replace leaders, but it can help them up their game.

Drew, who has worked with leading sports teams and global companies, says AI might be good at repetitive tasks and analysis, but it can’t replace human judgement and emotional intelligence.

“I don’t think AI will replace leaders for the simple reason that a leader is someone people follow, and people don’t follow machines,” says Drew.

“No one ever gave a computer a standing ovation or drew crowds out into the streets to cheer.

“Everyone in business is talking about AI. If you aren’t using it in some way, then what are you doing?

“And there are two camps: those who see it as a threat and those who think it’s the answer to all their problems.

“And as with most things in life, the answer lies somewhere in the middle.

“The organisations which benefit won’t be the ones with the most advanced AI, they’ll be the ones who use it in the best way.

“Most importantly, they’ll be the ones who understand that you can’t replace human judgement and that critical decisions are when that judgement is worth its weight in gold.”

Five ways AI can help leaders

It can give you your time back

One of AI’s greatest strengths is its ability to take repetitive tasks off your hands. No longer do we have to have someone to sit and take notes in meetings or scan piles of documents for information.

By getting that time back, we can concentrate on operating at the top of our skill set. We don’t want doctors spending time doing the filing, we want them diagnosing patients. The same is true of leaders. We want them motivating teams, helping and guiding, not stuck analysing a spreadsheet or reading through pages of minutes.

It broadens your thinking

Different AI platforms can offer different perspectives on issues. They’re not always right,
but looking at different opinions is very powerful for leadership thinking.

Used correctly, AI can help us challenge assumptions and provide ideas that we might not ever have thought of. But I don’t think it should ever replace your judgement.

It accelerates learning

AI can dramatically reduce the time it takes to build knowledge. The need to trawl through different books and websites can be removed by AI doing it for us.

It means we can spend more time on learning than finding the information but it comes with the warning that AI can hallucinate so it’s important to double check

It helps people play to their strengths

Not only can AI be a time saver but if AI can take care of the administrative tasks that people don't like doing, it will then allow us to do the things that we do best.

If we allow people to focus their time in their strength zones, that’s good for motivation, it’s good for people’s well-being and it’s definitely good for performance.

It raises the standard

If it's used well, AI can improve essential tasks like prepping and communication. It can even help us with decision making.

I don’t think it will make an average leader exceptional on its own but what it will do is help
A good leader become even better.

Five reasons why AI should never replace leaders

People connect with people

When it comes to people there are some things like trust, empathy and compassion which cannot be trusted to automation.

People won't follow a machine or software, they'll follow people who genuinely care and genuinely understand them.

Judgement belongs to humans

Sports coaches will have all the data in front of them, but they'll make a human judgment on whether a player needs to come off or be changed, or whether they need to push them more in training or ease off.

AI can give information, but I don’t think it gives the answers. It's the leaders that provide the wisdom through their own experience and judgement.

Authenticity matters

I would not be surprised if one of the phrases of 2026 is ‘AI slop’. Posts, and especially images, created by AI are so obvious and I think people are becoming irritated by it. People want an authentic voice and experience behind something, not some generic article someone couldn’t be bothered to think about.

AI is rubbish at asking good questions

AI is good at producing answers, but it’s rubbish at creating questions and asking the right questions is an essential part of being a good leader. If you don’t ask the right questions in the first place, you lose that curiosity which drives innovation.

Curiosity and embracing the challenge are deeply human skills and not something which can be replaced by machine learning.

Leadership is about courage, not convenience

When you think of a leader, you think of someone who inspires; who has an audience hooked on their every word or who can lead a group into battle. You don’t think of a software programme. No one ever gave a computer a standing ovation.

But it’s also those skills which are innately human which separate leaders from followers. The ability to have that difficult conversation, to unpick a knotty issue or to deal with complex decisions.

Any kind of difficult moment we come across will require emotional intelligence and personal responsibility which AI doesn’t bring to the table.