THE THRESHOLD

A corporate coach examines the qualities needed for leaders in the AI era.

The premise is undeniably interesting: The development and spread of AI systems requires a radical change in corporate leadership strategy. However, Chatrath, a former McKinsey consultant, misses an opportunity to break new ground. While he presents some colorful ideas, the text never finds a real nexus between leadership style and AI. The author spends most of the book setting up a model for leadership in 2023; key elements include cultivated stillness, independent thinking, embodied intelligence, and mature consciousness. All of these concepts are useful, but Chatrath doesn’t provide fresh insights. If the author had espoused this philosophy in the era of command-and-control management, it would have been radical, but today, the business section is packed with books about the importance of self-awareness and emotional connections. As for the “threshold” of AI emerging, that point occurred quite a few years ago. Chatrath offers a few intriguing anecdotes about AI, but there is a distinct lack of detailed analysis on how AI affects business—even though there are enough businesses who have integrated AI into their operations to constitute a wide-ranging research base. The author looks at the limitations of AI, especially in making complex, layered decisions, but he never delves deeply into the actual process of how human leaders should decide whether and when to overrule AI proposals. He discusses the difference between true wisdom and the manipulation of mountains of data, noting that leaders are most effective when they find social purpose in themselves and their companies—something that AI systems cannot do. However, most readers with an interest in the intersection of business and tech have heard these arguments before. The result is a book full of feel-good sentiment that is short on useful advice.

AI and leadership is an important field, but Chatrath fails to makes the necessary connections.