For some people and companies, artificial intelligence is exciting — a way to make work easier and more productive. But for others, it’s something to fear. It’s a powerful tool that could completely upend the workforce and strip people of their jobs. Linda Hill is a professor at Harvard Business School and the faculty chair of the leadership initiative there. She studies how organizations navigate those challenges and advises companies and leaders on how to effectively introduce AI to their employees and into their teams. For more, “Marketplace Morning Report” host Kimberly Adams spoke with Hill about her work. The following is an edited transcript of their conversation. Kimberly Adams: You've surveyed thousands of leaders about technological change, including AI. How are they thinking about and viewing this technology, and how has that conversation changed over the last few years?Linda Hill: Well, I'm going to quote one leader in particular who wasn't speaking specifically about AI — he was talking to me about digital transformation. But I think now with AI, it really captures what I'm hearing. He said that leading today is like leading through a fog. What does it mean to lead when you can't see, when you have no vision? So, we talk about really the leadership of AI as being a kind of leadership that requires a different mindset. It's not about pathfinding, saying, “I know where we're going, and I just got to figure out how to get us there,” which is really hard. But what leaders are telling me is they don't know really where we're going and they certainly don't know how they're going to get us there. So, we call it “wayfinding.” And most leaders who like to have a vision and communicate and inspire people to follow them don't feel too comfortable about being in that position.Adams: So, what are you advising them to do?Hill: I think one of the things we're advising them to do is really focus in on building a culture where people will be able to work in the new ways required to use these tools to make a difference to customers and other stakeholders. So, that's about building the capabilities in your organization that people need to be able to embrace a new technology, and there really are three: Can your organization collaborate, experiment, and learn? Now, many organizations are quite siloed and not so good at collaboration. But everyone tells us to use these tools correctly, you must be able to collaborate across an organization because it's horizontal work that needs to be done, not vertical work, if you're really going to use these tools to change your enterprise.Adams: What are you hearing from leaders that they're most concerned about in this moment of transition?Hill: They're very concerned about what it means for them. How are their roles going to change? How are their responsibilities going to change? Because they know they don't really know that. And so, I hear a lot of questions being asked about what am I going to be doing? How do I actually manage these technologies and make sure we mitigate any risks or be prepared to deal with those missteps that are inevitably going to happen?Adams: I imagine some employees are embracing these changes; others very resistant to this. We've seen this play out in organizations in the news, and sometimes even more quietly. How should leaders approach employees who are worried about AI?Hill: Well, one of the things we see is if you really want to make AI be adopted by people, you as a leader have to be the role model. You need to show them that you're willing to experiment and learn and collaborate with others to get it done. This is, again, not something that all leaders are comfortable with. So, we did a study — I think our survey now has been about almost over 9,000 executives. What we found is those leaders who are actually using the technology themselves, making mistakes, letting people see that they make mistakes, are much more likely to get employees to want to adopt these technologies. The other thing we see is that those leaders who are really honest with people about the fact that they don't know, and that in fact some people will probably lose their jobs or at least have their jobs change in very dramatic ways — when they say that and they tell the truth, they're seen as authentic. It doesn't make people happy, but at least they can trust that the leader is not trying to hide things from them.Adams: One of the pushbacks that I've been hearing from people is that all of this is being presented as inevitable. That this is coming, workers need to prepare, leaders need to change, organizations have to adapt. But is it really so inevitable that we all have to adjust to a new world in which AI influences everything at work?Hill: I think it's inevitable that we're going to have to respond to the fact that this technology exists. How we respond — that is a choice we get to make. And leaders, of course, of our organizations have a lot to do with whether we make choices that lead to the responsible use of AI or not. But no, I don't think you can resist it. So, I think you do need to try to educate yourself. My digital natives who are on my team made me learn how to vibe code and made me learn how to do all kinds of things that I would not have done on my own. But now that I kind of understand it, it actually terrifies me more, as well as excites me more. So, I think that you can't say, “I'm not going to use it.”The other thing, though, that I think we have to pay a lot of attention to is, as you may see, many young people are more nervous about these technologies. Some of it is about “am I going to have a job,” but really a lot of it is about sustainability and what is the impact on society if, in fact, large numbers of people are unemployed. So, I think that the word “responsible,” which is a tricky word, is something that all leaders need to be thinking about, and all citizens need to be thinking about as well. When you say “inevitable,” it sometimes implies we're not making choices. We are making choices, even if something is inevitable.Adams: Speaking of choices, what are some of the biggest mistakes you see organizations and leaders making as they try to bring these tools into their organizations?Hill: One of the biggest mistakes — and they're not making it quite as much — is many leaders first thought of this AI as a technology, and it was about how do we get this technology to work. They now understand it's really about people and cultural transformation. So, they are moving towards thinking about what's the experience of our employees using these technologies. And the experiences vary, as we just talked about. And they need to be “bridgers.” So, as one of the leaders described to us, he needs to be a “bridger” to close the gap between those people who are more excited and those people who are quite terrified. Because what you really want people to be is maybe curious but cautious.Adams: How would you compare this moment we're in with AI to other big digital transformations or periods of technological change?Hill: Well, I think the difference is, as I mentioned before, I think a lot of leadership feels like pathfinding. I know the destination I want to get there. They didn't really know the destination during the internet boom either. But they knew it better than they know it now. I've never had so many leaders — even when I go to those companies that are developing the tools and things for us to use — they said, "Linda, don't fall for the hype. Let me tell you, we don't know. We don't know where this is going. We don't know how we're going to get there.” The other thing that's different now is that there are many places in the world where unbelievable work is happening. Not that there weren't 20 some years ago, but not like there is now. And there's a lot of evidence that the data that are being used by a lot of Western companies really leave out data from the Global South and the Global East. And where is growth happening in the world? Where are the young people and the next generation of employees and customers going to come from? From other parts of the world. So, I think now, as a leader, if you're not paying attention to the development of technologies around the world, you're missing out.Adams: Some of these new technologies are so powerful that it can put companies and leaders in very difficult situations when it comes to government regulation, when it comes to push back from employees. How do you see leaders trying to walk these lines?Hill: I think leaders need to learn how to ask the right questions and not just accept from technologists that this is what you need to do. I think, in fact, often when we hear about technology or numbers, for some people, even very senior leaders, they think, again, that they just have to accept what that expert is telling them. And this is very dangerous. It can be very useful to have someone in the conversation who has the beginner's eye — that is, does not understand the technology — because they are going to be willing to ask that quote “stupid question” that gets at first assumptions. And so, in fact, what I would say to leaders to avoid these kinds of circumstances is: your experts tell you stuff, but guess what? You still need to use your own human judgment, your own set of values, and your sense of purpose of your organization to really interrogate those experts about what the implications might be of actually taking the actions they're suggesting you take. Because one of the biggest problems we have with technology is that people are afraid to speak up and take on the expert.Adams: You and I have spoken a lot about leadership and leadership in this moment, but how can regular employees — particularly folks maybe not in white collar roles, approach or take advantage of AI to be successful through this moment of transition?Hill: Well, I think one of the things that you need to do is try out lots of the different tools. There are free versions, and you need to ask the same questions of different versions and see how they give you different answers. One of the things that you will discover when you do all of that is that there isn't just one right answer. Each of these algorithms are different and they're built on different models. The other thing is you need to ask different kinds of questions and then you need to interrogate what the result is because — as you well know — these technologies hallucinate. So, I would say for the regular person, be curious but cautious. Try to hold your own leadership responsible by sort of asking, like, “tell us the truth.” You want to hear the truth about what they think is going to happen, and how much time do I have to try to learn some of these new skills? And if they tell you not very much, you need to figure out how to get on LinkedIn — or however you find a job — and start looking elsewhere. But hold your leadership accountable. Ask them the hard questions about it, and don't let them off the hook.