Why I Chose a Business Novel to Explore Leadership Judgment in the Age of AI

AI will improve decision-making. But it may also make one leadership failure easier to hide: responsibility.

In analytically sophisticated organizations, responsibility can quietly diffuse. The models improve, the data becomes richer, and the analysis becomes more precise. Yet the core leadership question does not change: who ultimately owns the decision?

Frameworks are excellent at clarifying variables and relationships. They help leaders structure thinking and evaluate tradeoffs. But they are far less effective at confronting responsibility, consequence, and the moral tension behind difficult choices—especially when those choices unfold over time and under pressure.

That realization is what led me to write A Return to Strategic Leadership: Judgment in the Age of AI as a business novel rather than a traditional strategy book. Narrative forces decisions in ways frameworks cannot. Characters cannot defer to process or precedent; they must decide—and live with the consequences.

While writing the book, one pattern became increasingly clear. In analytically sophisticated environments, responsibility can quietly disappear into the machinery of decision processes. But when outcomes become irreversible, accountability becomes unmistakably visible.

AI can inform decisions. It can expand the range and quality of analysis available to leaders. But it cannot assume responsibility for the decisions themselves.

That remains the work of leadership. And as AI becomes embedded in more executive decisions, the real question for organizations becomes this: how do we ensure accountability remains visible when the analysis becomes more powerful than ever?