A recap for growth-minded CEOs and CXOs from our July Executive Reset – Leadership Agility in the Age of AI

Here’s a stat that stopped our room of mid-market CEOs and CXOs cold last week: 92% of companies plan to keep investing in AI. Only 1% of leaders feel ready for what that investment demands of them.

That gap isn’t a technology problem. It’s a leadership capacity problem – the exact conversation our Executive Reset group dug into on July 15.

The Pattern We Keep Seeing

Companies roll out AI tools, employees have access, and yet only 5% of that access is producing meaningfully better work (Neuro Leadership Institute). Meanwhile 90% of executives say agility is the #1 capability their organization needs right now – and most admit they don’t have it (ChangeWise).

One COO/CMO participant named the root cause plainly: “Leadership wants to be AI-relevant because it’s a buzzword. They start making quick moves without testing or really understanding the problem they’re trying to solve.”

Many organizations skip “ready” and “aim” and go straight to “fire.” Every time, the results disappoint.

Why This Time Is Different

We’ve all lived through transformations before – the shift to Google, GPS, mobile in the 2000s, for example. What’s different now, per Deloitte’s research, is that this change has no finish line. Roughly 60% of global companies had a major transformation in the last 18 months; fewer than half delivered the ROI they expected. There’s no beginning-middle-end anymore. It’s continuous.

That’s exactly why leadership agility – not another AI tool – is the lever that actually moves the needle.

Leadership Agility® & The Four Agilities

  • Self-Leadership – seeking feedback to see your own blind spots
  • Stakeholder – genuinely understanding what each stakeholder cares about
  • Context-Setting – framing the actual problem instead of everything at once
  • Creative – rethinking how the business runs and solves problems, not just speeding everything up

Only about 10% of leaders operate at the highest level of this model – called ‘Catalysts’. The other 90% have real room to grow.

“Leadership modeling the willingness to learn and use AI cascades down to everyone else – that’s what I’ve seen work.”

– Participant, Product & Digital Executive

Our takeaway for you: before your next meeting, plan how to deploy the four agilities the moment actually calls for. That thirty-second habit is what separates leaders who feel ready – and are actually converting AI spend into growth – from everyone else still catching up.