AI Is Undermining Leaders’ Judgment. Here’s What to Do About It.

hbr.org · 2026-08-20 · by Long Nguyen ·generic
As organizations gain more “intelligence” with AI tools, leaders are being trained out of the very capacity that creates competitive advantage—original judgment. Two interlocking capacities shape a leader’s ability to produce original thinking: breadth of perception (noticing weak signals and adjacent patterns beyond the obvious) and independence of interpretation (forming your own view rather than deferring to the model’s or the group’s). Organizations can protect judgement by adopting two practices: structured curiosity and intentional dissent.

AI Is Undermining Leaders’ Judgment. Here’s What to Do About It.

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    • As organizations gain more “intelligence” with AI tools, leaders are being trained out of the very capacity that creates competitive advantage—original judgment. Two interlocking...more

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    • A recent report from Harvard researchers studying innovation showcased a troubling pattern. To test how AI impacts human judgment, the researchers conducted a field experiment, asking 228 experienced evaluators to assess 48 submissions to an MIT global social impact innovation challenge. The researchers tested three conditions: 1) human-only evaluations; 2) LLM evaluations with a narrative explanation of the decision-making; and 3) LLM evaluations with no further context. They then compared the evaluators’ decisions against those made by four experts affiliated with the innovation challenge.

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Read more on Decision making and problem solving or related topics Organizational decision making, AI and machine learning, Technology and analytics and Automation

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