AI Tools to Elevate People and Performance
AI is rapidly transforming how companies operate, but the greatest opportunity lies in how it can transform how leaders lead. For executive leaders, AI is not just a tool for efficiency; it's a strategic lever for creating more responsive, data-driven, and human-centered organizations.
Here’s how to integrate AI into your leadership practice:
1. Make Smarter, Faster Strategic Decisions
AI can synthesize massive volumes of business and workforce data—enabling leaders to spot patterns, forecast trends, and simulate outcomes.
Tools to Try:
Tableau + Einstein Analytics (Salesforce): Combines visual analytics with AI-powered predictions.
Microsoft Power BI with Copilot: Natural-language queries help you interpret performance dashboards quickly.
Workday People Analytics: Delivers AI-driven insights about employee attrition, engagement, and performance.
How to Use It:
Review predictive insights on turnover risks or promotion readiness.
Use natural language AI queries like “Which departments are showing signs of burnout?” to explore emerging issues.
Pair AI insights with strategic conversations—use it to prompt better questions, not make final calls.
2. Personalize Talent Development at Scale
Modern AI tools can recommend learning paths, identify upskilling opportunities, and even draft individualized career plans—without adding more work to managers’ plates.
Tools to Try:
Degreed or EdCast: AI-curated learning experience platforms personalized by employee skills and goals.
Eightfold.ai: Uses AI to match people with internal opportunities and learning.
BetterUp: AI-assisted coaching that helps scale leadership development across an org.
How to Use It:
Launch personalized development journeys tied to business goals.
Identify skills gaps across functions and tailor L&D investments.
Use AI-powered talent marketplaces to support internal mobility.
3. Drive Transparent, Continuous Performance Management
AI can support a more fluid, objective, and timely performance process—shifting from annual reviews to real-time coaching.
Tools to Try:
Lattice, 15Five, or CultureAmp: Combine AI analytics with continuous feedback, goals tracking, and engagement surveys.
Leapsome: Offers AI-assisted review writing and performance calibration.
Zavvy: Uses AI to create development frameworks and competency models.
How to Use It:
Set up OKRs that are dynamically updated based on changing inputs.
Monitor employee sentiment with pulse surveys and address red flags early.
Use AI to flag inconsistent feedback or patterns of bias in performance reviews.
4. Strengthen Internal Communication & Alignment
Leaders can use AI to enhance transparency, tailor communications, and ensure their message resonates with diverse teams.
Tools to Try:
Grammarly Business with AI rewrite suggestions: Helps executives write with clarity and tone appropriate to context.
Otter.ai or Fireflies.ai: Record, transcribe, and summarize meetings using AI.
Notion AI or ChatGPT Enterprise: Draft internal memos, FAQs, or meeting recaps.
How to Use It:
Summarize quarterly town halls with action items and distribute them automatically.
Translate messages into multiple languages or adjust tone for different teams.
Use sentiment analysis (via tools like MonkeyLearn) on open-text survey responses to see how messages are landing.
5. Use AI to Build a More Inclusive, Ethical Culture
As AI becomes more powerful, so do ethical leadership obligations. Executives must ensure AI tools are free from bias, used transparently, and designed to benefit employees—not just productivity metrics.
Tools & Practices:
Pymetrics: Uses neuroscience-backed, bias-tested AI for hiring and internal mobility.
Textio: Helps eliminate bias in job postings and performance reviews.
AI Governance Toolkit (World Economic Forum or Microsoft’s AI Principles): For setting internal guardrails.
How to Use It:
Regularly audit AI tools for fairness, accuracy, and bias.
Include diverse voices when selecting and implementing AI platforms.
Communicate clearly how AI tools are used to support—not monitor—employees.
Getting Started: A Leadership Integration Plan
Phase Action Example
1. Educate Build AI literacy in your executive team Host an internal workshop using tools like LinkedIn Learning or invite an AI ethics expert
2. Pilot Choose 1–2 AI tools aligned with business goals Test Lattice for continuous performance or Otter.ai for meeting efficiency.
3. Iterate Gather feedback, refine use, and measure impact Survey users after 60 days and compare outcomes to baseline metrics.
4. Scale Integrate AI into leadership routines Add AI dashboards to exec meetings or use predictive analytics for strategic workforce planning
Executive leadership in the age of AI isn’t about mastering algorithms—it’s about embracing augmentation. The best leaders will use AI not to replace human insight, but to expand their reach, deepen empathy, and make more informed, ethical, and inclusive decisions.
If you’re leading a team, a business unit, or an entire company, now is the time to learn how AI can work for you—and with you.
