Much of the conversation about artificial intelligence in organisations has focused on skills.

Do employees know how to use it? Are managers adopting it? Which roles will change? What training do people need?

A new global study from the IBM Institute for Business Value suggests there may be another question leaders should be asking:

What capabilities might people lose as AI becomes part of everyday work?

The study, released on 21 September 2026, surveyed 1,500 CHROs and 8,800 full-time employees. Sixty percent of employees said they worry AI is eroding their skills, with critical thinking cited most frequently. (PR Newswire)

That alone deserves attention.

But another finding is even more interesting.

Seventy-one percent of CHROs identified the ability to supervise, validate and override AI outputs as an essential workforce skill. Yet only 29% of employees ranked judgement as important. (PR Newswire)

There is a significant human capability gap hiding inside those numbers.

Using AI is not the same as thinking well

AI can help us analyse information, draft material, identify patterns and accelerate decisions.

Those are valuable capabilities.

But the easier it becomes to generate an answer, the more important it becomes to know whether that answer should be trusted.

That requires critical thinking.

It requires context.

It requires judgement.

And sometimes it requires the confidence to say, “That doesn't look right.”

This is where the AI conversation becomes a leadership conversation.

Because organisations cannot simply train people to use AI. They also need to develop people's ability to challenge it.

Productivity without purpose is another warning sign

Culture Amp's new AI at Work Benchmark provides another useful piece of the picture.

Its analysis of approximately 112,000 employees found that 85% were being encouraged to explore AI, while only 58% said leaders had clearly explained how AI would help achieve organisational goals. Seventy-one percent said AI made them feel more productive, yet workload scores had barely shifted. (Culture Amp)

That raises an important question.

If AI creates capacity, what are we asking people to do with it?

More work?

Better work?

More thinking?

More connection?

More innovation?

Technology cannot answer that question for an organisation. Leadership has to.

Human capability needs deliberate development

For years, we have talked about human capabilities such as judgement, communication, self-awareness and critical thinking as though people simply acquire them through experience.

That assumption is becoming harder to defend.

As AI begins performing more of the thinking, analysis and early-stage work that once gave people practice, organisations may need to become far more deliberate about creating opportunities to exercise those capabilities.

This matters particularly for emerging leaders.

We cannot develop judgement without giving people decisions to make.

We cannot develop confidence without allowing people to wrestle with uncertainty.

And we cannot develop accountability if responsibility is constantly handed somewhere else.

My philosophy has always been Lead Yourself First.

In an AI-enabled workplace, I think that becomes even more important.

Use the technology.

Learn from it.

Let it make you more capable.

But don't outsource the responsibility to think, question and decide.

Because perhaps the defining human capability of the AI era won't be knowing how to get an answer.

It will be knowing what to do with one. (PR Newswire)

This is a question I ask often.

In leadership programmes.

In mentoring conversations.

In workshops.

And increasingly, I find myself asking it of my own life.

Not:

What do you want to achieve?

Not:

What title do you want?

Not:

How much money do you want to earn?

But:

Who do you want to be?

At first, people often find the question uncomfortable.

Perhaps because we're so conditioned to focus on doing.

Doing more.

Achieving more.

Accumulating more.

Moving faster.

Yet when we look back on the people who have influenced us most, we rarely remember them because of what they achieved.

We remember how they made us feel.

We remember their integrity.

Their kindness.

Their courage.

Their presence.

Their character.

In other words, we remember who they were.

I believe many of life's challenges become clearer when we start with who we want to be.

When a difficult conversation needs to happen.

Who do you want to be?

When a relationship is tested.

Who do you want to be?

When nobody is watching.

Who do you want to be?

When life doesn't go according to plan.

Who do you want to be?

The answer won't always make the decision easier.

But it often makes the direction clearer.

Over the years, I've worked with senior executives, emerging leaders, students and individuals navigating major life transitions.

What I've learned is that confidence rarely comes first.

Clarity rarely comes first.

Even certainty rarely comes first.

More often, growth begins when we decide who we want to be and start acting accordingly.

Long before we feel ready.

Long before we feel confident.

Long before we have all the answers.

Because character is not built in the easy moments.

It's revealed in the difficult ones.

And perhaps that's why this question matters more than ever.

We live in a world full of information.

Advice is everywhere.

Technology can answer almost any question within seconds.

Yet there remains one question that no technology can answer for us.

Only we can answer it.

Who do you want to be?

It's a simple question.

But it may be one of the most important questions we ever ask ourselves.

Everyone says they want more confidence.

But confidence isn’t something you build in isolation.
It’s something that comes after you start showing up differently.

The real question is:
Where are you holding back?

Where are you waiting until you feel ready, certain, or “good enough”?

Because that moment rarely comes.

Confidence isn’t the starting point.
It’s the result of doing the thing you’ve been avoiding.

Speak up.
Make the decision.
Have the conversation.

Then watch what happens.

“I feel stuck” is one of the most common things I hear.

But when you look a little closer, it’s rarely true.

Most people aren’t stuck.
They’re avoiding something.

A conversation they don’t want to have.
A decision they don’t want to make.
A truth they don’t want to face.

Stuck feels safer.
It removes responsibility.

But the moment you ask yourself,
“What am I avoiding?”
everything starts to shift.

Because now you’re back in it.

And that’s where change happens.

Leadership isn’t something that begins when you get the role.

It starts much earlier - in the small, everyday moments.

How you respond under pressure.
How you communicate.
How you take ownership.
How you treat people.

Most people wait to be “given” leadership.

But the ones who stand out are already doing it.

Quietly. Consistently.
Without the title.

The role just catches up later.

There’s a moment most people recognise.

That quiet, internal nudge.

You know what needs to change.
You know what you need to do.

And then… you override it.

You tell yourself:
“Not yet”
“I’ll wait”
“It’s not the right time”

But it’s rarely about timing.

It’s about discomfort.

The more you ignore that internal voice,
the harder it becomes to hear.

The more you listen,
the clearer everything gets.

Everyone wants growth.

Very few people want the work that comes with it.

Because real growth isn’t comfortable.

It’s looking at how you show up.
It’s owning your patterns.
It’s having the conversations you’ve been avoiding.

It’s not always visible from the outside.

But it changes everything.

The people who move forward aren’t the ones with more information.

They’re the ones willing to do the work others won’t.