Embrace AI and Increase Your Influence

We’re all navigating new territory as artificial intelligence (AI) begins to permeate more and more aspects of our work and life. But what’s been historically true of innovation is that we must adapt, embrace the new, and find the opportunity. And at the core, this development is no different. We can view AI as a negative or positive disruption—and you, the leader, make that call.

AI is bringing about big changes and there’s always a ripple effect with any change which is why it’s important for leaders to be aware of widespread impact. In his book, The 7 Perspectives of Effective Leaders, our CEO & Founder, Daniel Harkavy says, “Your leadership effectiveness will be determined by just two things: the decisions you make and the influence you have.”

And in this fast-moving technological landscape, the decisions needing to be made by leaders are changing too. At Building Champions, we encourage leaders to use the 7 Perspectives framework in their decision-making, helping them to consider diverse and important viewpoints. And in this article, we cover how AI connects to the 7 Perspectives and how by embracing it in your decision-making, you can increase your influence and strengthen your leadership effectiveness.  

Key Takeaways

• When embraced, AI can help increase a leader's influence by informing decisions, reducing busywork, and improving clarity—while leaders keep judgment, convictions, and people at the center.
  

• AI strengthens decision-making across the 7 Perspectives by widening visibility into current reality, vision, strategic bets, team dynamics, customer needs, your daily disciplines, and external viewpoints and indicators.
  

• Customer impact improves when AI synthesizes feedback into clear priorities, enabling faster fixes and better experiences that strengthen loyalty and leadership credibility.

How AI Connects to The 7 Perspectives of Effective Leaders

1. Current Reality. When using AI to analyze data, you can get a live, accurate picture of what’s happening. AI can consolidate operating metrics, customer feedback, and project updates into a concise brief that highlights what changed, what’s at risk, and what needs your attention. It helps prepare you to enter meetings informed so that you can make faster and more informed decisions.
   
   

2. Vision. You have an envisioned future for your organization, but it’s important to pause and assess if you’re on track to get there. You can use AI to scan trends, summarize research, and build scenarios that reveal how different choices might affect timing, cost, and customer impact. This information will help you mitigate risk and predict future trends that will help you make the right decision to lead your organization forward.
   
   

3. Strategic Bets. As a reminder, strategic bets are initiatives that help you close the gap from your current reality to your envisioned future. They are outside of your normal scope of operations and usually have risk involved. AI can provide you with A/B comparisons to help you weigh trade-offs as you place these strategic bets.
   
   

4. The Team. It’s so important for leaders to hear directly from the team. AI can help by synthesizing their feedback to help you understand themes and challenges to make positive and lasting change. Make sure to communicate back what you’ve heard to your team to ensure you understand their needs, challenges, and overall perspective. 
   
   

5. The Customer. AI can summarize customer reviews, support tickets, and survey comments into themes so that you can act quickly. It can highlight what you’re doing well and what needs to change. This type of clarity will help you prioritize what specifically can improve customer satisfaction and loyalty—which will increase your influence.
   
   

6. Your Role. It can be easy to continue doing things the same way for too long. AI can help you see your own patterns so that you better understand how you’re spending your time. This insight can help you get clear on which activities you should keep and which ones you should delegate—or stop doing altogether.
   
   

7. The Outsider. A leader should always seek outside, unbiased input in decisions of great impact. And AI can make it easier to gather objective perspectives from peers, advisors, and industry sources whether via meeting summaries or survey results. Diverse outside perspectives help you avoid echo chambers so that you make good decisions and consider multiple angles.

Strengthening Your Leadership Effectiveness

Leaders who embrace AI responsibly don’t surrender judgment; they strengthen it. They see more, decide faster, and stay anchored to what matters most—people, purpose, and results. If you’re ready to integrate AI in a way that fits your convictions and elevates your leadership, our coaches can help you build the habits and guardrails that help you partner with it while also increasing your leadership effectiveness.

Frequently Asked Questions

• Can AI replace leaders?
  No—AI supports leaders by improving inputs and speed. Leaders provide context, values, and the final decision that drives accountability.
  

• How does AI increase a leader’s influence?
  AI increases influence by speeding decisions and clarifying priorities. With clearer inputs, leaders communicate direction better and move teams to action faster.
  

• How does AI support the 7 Perspectives of Effective Leaders?
  AI widens each perspective by consolidating signals and surfacing patterns. Leaders still interpret current reality, vision, strategic bets, team, customer, role, and outsider input.
  

• How should I talk to my team about AI?
  Be transparent about what AI will draft and what stays human. Publish simple guardrails and invite feedback so adoption builds trust, not fear.
  

• Will AI improve customer experience as well as efficiency?
  Yes, it can! AI turns feedback into clear priorities and faster fixes. Leaders use those insights to focus teams on actions that strengthen loyalty.