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Most C-suite leaders today are obsessed with preparing employees for the AI era by teaching new technical skills. Brené Brown thinks they’re fighting only half the battle.
The billions being poured into AI, she says, will not pay off if companies fail to invest in the human foundations—trust, development, and culture— that determine whether these tools actually improve performance.
“I don’t blame the C-suite for wanting to believe it’s about skills because that’s easier than creating a deep sense of mattering and courage and trust and agency,” author and researcher Brown told me last week.
New data suggests that whether AI improves performance may depend less on how much leaders use it than on the kind of culture they create around it. In a BetterUp survey of full-time workers in the U.S., Canada, and the U.K., managers with high AI usage in high-trust, high-development cultures saw team performance rise 6%. Managers with equally high AI usage in low-trust, low-development cultures saw performance fall 9%.
Across the board, leaders who paired AI investments with human ones—by building relationships with their employees or actively coaching their teams—saw 17% stronger performance across productivity, work quality, and effectiveness than leaders who prioritized AI while putting less of a focus on people.
The conclusion may sound intuitive. But BetterUp CEO Alexi Robichaux says only the top-performing managers are using time saved by AI to reinvest in their teams—mainly because most are burnt out. That has real consequences.
If companies want workers to embrace AI rather than resist it as a threat, Robichaux says, leaders need to start by building real personal connections.
“The problem is we suck at the human part, but it is forcing our hand to get good at the human part because it’s the only thing left where we can compete,” he says.
His recommendation? Go back to basics. Take your employees out for coffee. Check in with them. At its core, it’s all about building trust.
Brown, who serves as executive chair of the BetterUp Center for Daring Leadership, says trust is earned in small, consistent moments when leaders show genuine interest in their employees’ lives.
“Those are seen as difficult because they’re time investments,” she says. “But you think building trust is expensive? Try not having trust. That’s going to cost you everything.”
Kristin Stoller
Editorial Director, Fortune Live Media
kristin.stoller@fortune.com
Around the Table
A round-up of the most important HR headlines.
Workers displaced by AI are facing lasting economic pain, a new Goldman Sachs report finds. Wall Street Journal
An IBM executive built himself an AI agent to help him prep for calls, and claims he’s saving five hours a week. Business Insider
Companies are taking “absurd” lengths to avoid talking about DEI, amid fears of being the administration’s next target. New York Times
Watercooler
Everything you need to know from Fortune.
Tool tampering. Employees are so scared of AI taking their jobs that they’re trying to sabotage their company’s AI rollout. —Jake Angelo
Megamanger era. The number of direct reports a manager oversees has nearly doubled in the past decade—and AI is to blame. —Nick Lichtenberg
Poly-employment paradox. Gen Z doesn’t want your full-time job. They’re leaning on AI to take on multiple part-time jobs. —Jake Angelo
