10 Essential Leadership Traits for the AI Era

Artificial intelligence is rewriting the rules of business and technology leadership in real time. Given that fact, what leadership skills are most important right now? We asked AI experts and business and technology leaders at the 2025 MIT Sloan CIO Symposium to weigh in on the most important traits for AI leadership. You might expect their answers to point to data literacy or technical strategy, but we heard much more interesting — and human — advice.

For example, courage matters greatly among today’s leaders, said Monica Caldas, executive vice president and CIO at Liberty Mutual Insurance and winner of the 2025 MIT Sloan CIO Leadership Award. “You have to think about the transformation that’s ahead, the change management, also your own beliefs about how things should work and how they’re now evolving,” Caldas said. “That takes courage, to reimagine the art of the possible.”

Here are three other examples of leadership traits that deserve your attention:

• Playfulness: Experimenting and tinkering drive real AI tool adoption.
• Curiosity, paired with caution: Explore while building cyber resilience.
• Present-future balance: Look forward, but stay grounded.

Watch this short video to hear more about what it takes to guide an organization through the business and workforce transformations that AI is bringing. Then consider how to build these AI leadership traits in yourself and in your team.

Video Credits

Laurianne McLaughlin is the senior digital editor at MIT Sloan Management Review.

M. Shawn Read is the multimedia editor at MIT Sloan Management Review.