Justin O'Brien

Part 12 of 17 of a research-based series exploring AI’s impact on leadership This post summarises the article Transformational Leadership, AI Competitiveness, and Project Performance: A Moderation Analysis by Ofosu-Ampong and Adu-Ntim (2025)

Does implementing highly automated AI processes inevitably lead to a loss of human leadership effectiveness and organizational oversight? This study investigated how leadership styles interact with AI competitiveness in multinational organizations, finding that while transformational leadership positively enhances the benefits of AI integration (scope and frequency of use), excessive AI-enabled process automation shows a negative effect on project performance. This research challenges the conventional assumption that greater technology acceptance automatically equates to higher productivity, noting that AI satisfaction did not significantly influence project performance when leadership oversight is lost due to over-automation. This emphasizes the critical need for a precise balance between AI-enabled processes and crucial human elements.

The negative correlation between excessive automation and diminished performance establishes a clear role for critical boundary management. Leaders must use critical thought to precisely determine where substitution ends and human augmentation begins. The key critical function for transformational leaders is managing the human–AI interaction to prevent automation saturation from compromising essential human oversight and strategic flexibility. This demands continuous critical evaluation of the trade-off: specifically, analyzing the “mechanisms through which transformational leadership behaviors directly impact AI-related outcomes” to maximize system benefits while maintaining appropriate levels of process automation.

The authors, Kingsley Ofosu-Ampong and Julius Adu-Ntim, suggest that organizations must develop leadership approaches that effectively promote AI usage while maintaining appropriate levels of process automation to maximize AI system benefits. What metric should leaders use to determine if they have crossed the threshold into ‘excessive automation’ that risks diminishing their human leadership effectiveness? Share your view.

#Leadership #AIinBusiness #TransformationalLeadership #AutomationParadox #CriticalThinking #ProjectManagement #AIIntegration

Reference: Ofosu-Ampong, K., & Adu-Ntim, J. (2025). Transformational Leadership, AI Competitiveness, and Project Performance: A Moderation Analysis. International Journal of Global Business and Competitiveness. https://doi.org/10.1007/s42943-025-00124-x