How Leaders Can Create High-Performing Teams With AI

Worldwide, an estimated 300 million companies are either using AI solutions or exploring how they might use them. [1] These solutions no longer only fuel automation. They have become collaborators that support team workflows.

As a result, leaders are now responsible for both people and machines. This newfound responsibility leaves them with a mission to ensure that AI enhances human contributions instead of diminishing them.

Leading AI-augmented teams is a new and evolving skill, but it is one that leaders can learn and put into practice. The result: seamless human-AI collaboration that drives productivity, creativity, and trust-based team culture.

What Human-AI Collaboration Really Means

Thanks to AI’s ongoing development, it can now work with humans to boost productivity and enhance decision making. The aim is not to replace humans, it’s to enhance their roles.

For example, common uses of AI include summarizing meetings for attendees, repurposing high-converting copy for additional platforms, analyzing datasets to inform leaders’ decisions, and running chatbots that learn how to better support customers.

According to specialist AI services management firm, AISERA, there are three approaches that organizations can adopt for human-AI collaboration: human in the loop, human on the loop, and human in command. [2]

1. Human in the loop: this approach sees team members create inputs for AI, providing it with expertise and judgment that directs the output. This can work well when human management is critical, such as in financial analysis or medical diagnoses.
2. Human on the loop: this approach sees AI make decisions without human input. Team members monitor and adjust its decisions to avoid misinformation and manage ethics. This can work well in autonomous systems where humans are necessary to manage unexpected situations, such as customer service.
3. Human in command: this approach sees team members make decisions, which AI supports with recommendations. Humans hold overall control, but AI acts as an advisor. This can work well for strategic decision making, perhaps in corporate governance or military operations.

Why Leadership Matters in Human-AI Teams

Human-AI teams don’t succeed by accident. They succeed under the direction of intentional leaders, who continuously upskill their teams in line with AI developments.

These leaders aren’t just redefining job descriptions. They’re redefining workflows that ensure smooth handoffs between skilled professionals and AI.

Although 92 percent of companies plan to invest more in AI between 2025 and 2027, only 1 percent of leaders have fully integrated AI into their workflows to fuel substantial business outcomes. [3]

These leaders can set themselves apart in the AI world and redefine workflows by:

Clarifying Roles and Responsibilities Between Humans and AI

Although this will look different in every organization, human roles and responsibilities are likely to thrive when they involve emotional intelligence, creativity, and ethics. AI lacks these skills, and they’re critical to strong decision making. [4]

Encouraging the Ethical Use of AI

Leaders should clearly communicate the ways that their organization uses AI, highlighting its limitations and the privacy safeguards that the organization is employing. Providing training can also help teams use AI ethically, with consistent management across all teams. [5]

Cultivating Trust and Openness to Experimentation

Leaders can nurture psychological safety, allowing teams to express themselves, take risks, and fail upwards. [6] Encouraging candid knowledge sharing can help teams feel comfortable experimenting with AI to find great-fit solutions.

Handling Resistance With Empathy and Transparency

AI can leave team members uncertain about the future of their careers. Rather than avoiding this fear, leaders can communicate clearly and reassure team members that their jobs are evolving, not disappearing.

Alongside empathetic leadership, regular updates on AI integration and training to help team members upskill can guide everyone into a supportive AI environment. [7]

Key Leadership Capabilities for AI-Enhanced Teams

Although 84 percent of leaders believe AI can support their organizations, only 26 percent of office workers use it daily. This large gap could stem from the fact that 82 percent of organizations aren’t prepared to integrate technology into the workplace. [8]

Leaders can pave the way for AI integration and promote human-technology collaboration by practicing the following capabilities:

Systems Thinking

Systems thinking involves visualizing how AI will integrate into human-managed systems – how it will interact with people, processes, and other technologies.

Effective leaders can identify where AI adds value and where human judgment is critical to building adaptable systems that evolve as AI advances.

Tech Confidence

This involves asking incisive questions about AI’s opportunities and limitations – without leaders needing to be AI experts themselves.

Leaders can enable productive conversations between technical and non-technical teams and know when to bring in experts to make AI-related decisions.

Ethical Judgment

It’s important to understand and identify potential biases or misuse in AI systems before implementation.

So establish clear guidelines around ethical use, create a channel for team members to raise concerns, and regularly audit AI outputs to monitor possible biases.

Co-Creation Mindset

Involve your people in decisions over which AI solutions to adopt and how to use them. You can create pilot programs to collect feedback as AI usage is developed and encourage departments to share their learnings.

Consistent Learning

This isn’t just about keeping up with how AI’s is evolving, it’s also about modeling the curiosity you would like to see from the rest of your team.

There are several ways to model curiosity, from displaying intrigue around new technologies to rewarding team members for making AI explorations that could benefit their work.

Creativity as a Priority

Although creativity is a human skill, AI may enhance your team’s innovative thinking. Whether applying a team’s ideas to functional processes, transforming them into workable products, or generating images for inspiration, the options to use AI as a creative partner are endless. [9]

To foster creativity, celebrate and incentivize scenarios in which team members have used AI to conceptualize ideas or develop innovative solutions.

You might also produce case studies to share with other departments that could learn from your team’s creative explorations.

Practical Actions for Leaders

Shaping a seamless human-AI team may feel overwhelming. However, there are practical actions you can take right away to facilitate this collaboration:

1. Identify one task that your team could augment with AI. This could be a time-consuming or repetitive task, such as report creation, data entry, or responding to initial customer inquiries.
2. Lead a role-mapping exercise. Involve your team in a discussion over which tasks would be better suited to AI and which would be better suited to humans. This approach can alleviate fear over jobs being “replaced” by enabling team members to have a say in how the organization uses AI.
3. Host an “AI Lab" Session. As mentioned earlier, a safe space for testing tools can help teams get comfortable with AI experimentation and learning as they go. During this session, team members can practice translating AI concepts into practical skills.
4. Align your L&D strategy with hybrid human-AI capabilities: Ensure learning and development plans are future-ready with training in both AI and human capabilities, including ethical reasoning and creative problem solving.
5. Regularly review feedback. Set checkpoints to analyze how AI is affecting creativity, productivity, and team happiness, adapting the use of tools accordingly. A thorough feedback process is essential to ensuring AI is supporting real needs instead of offering theoretical benefits.

Leadership That Combines Human Intelligence and AI

Future-ready leaders may be integrating AI into more and more operations. But humans are still at the center of successful organizations – the ones where people and AI complement each other.

This is because AI can only enhance performance when those using it are empowered. Leaders who create environments where AI supports teams rather than replaces them will unlock new levels of innovation and effectiveness.

Teams shouldn’t just survive technological advancements. They should pivot and flourish because of them.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I need to be an AI expert to lead AI-enabled teams?

No. You need tech confidence: the ability to ask the right questions, involve the right people, and guide your team through experimentation and change.

What’s the best way to start integrating AI into my team’s work?

Begin with one repetitive or time-consuming task. Involve the team in testing how AI could improve it, and use the experience to learn and iterate together.

How can I address fear or resistance from my team?

Be transparent, involve team members in role-mapping discussions, and reinforce that AI is there to support their work, not replace them. Provide training and reassurance.

How do I know if AI is actually helping my team?

Set up feedback loops. Ask your team how AI is impacting creativity, productivity and engagement. Adjust your approach based on real insights, not assumptions.