AI is meant to make leaders more productive. In reality, it’s often doing the opposite. More emails. More documents. More to read. And at the same time, leaders are trying to find the time to learn how to use it properly.
I’m fortunate to have coached hundreds of leaders and teams—across business, government, and professional services—on how to adopt AI in a practical way.
Not theory. Not hype.
Just sitting alongside people, working through their real emails, meetings, documents, and decisions—helping them figure out where AI fits.
Across those workshops and coaching sessions, a clear pattern has emerged.
There’s a tension playing out right now. AI is meant to make leaders more productive. But in many cases, it’s doing the opposite. It’s adding more:
At the same time, those same leaders are trying to find the time to learn how to use AI properly.
So they end up stuck:
More to process. Less time to figure it out.
When I work with leaders, I usually see two starting points.
Neither group is doing anything wrong. It’s just the reality of leadership roles—time is tight, and AI has arrived fast.
When you sit beside a leader at their laptop, the reality becomes obvious. They’re drowning.
Then AI gets layered on top. Now there’s even more. Not less work.
Just more noise.
AI is scaling output faster than it’s scaling decision-making. Part of the issue sits lower in the organisation.
At a junior level, staff are getting very good at using AI to produce more content.
So more content flows upward.
But at the leadership level, there isn’t always the same AI capability to filter and interpret it.
At the same time, much of that content is:
So leaders end up spending more time working out: “What actually matters here?”
That creates a loop: More content → more review → less thinking time → more pressure
Most AI use today is centred around creating. For leaders, that’s not where the value is. Leaders don’t need AI to produce more. They need it to help them think. That means using AI to:
Less production. More direction.
Because leadership isn’t about writing more. It’s about deciding better.
This is where most organisations get it wrong. They start with the tool:
“Here’s Copilot”
“Here’s ChatGPT”
In coaching, we start somewhere else:
“Show me how you work”
We focus on:
Then we apply AI directly into those workflows. That’s when it becomes super useful.
When used this way, the gains are immediate. Not big transformations—practical improvements in pressure points.
Calendar
Meetings
Documents & Information
These are the areas that give leaders time back.
It doesn’t matter whether you’re using:
If you don’t prompt properly, you get poor results.
Most people use one-line prompts e.g. "Summarise this". And get average output. The difference between average and high-value output is how you ask.
A simple structure works: Context → Task → Output
But more importantly, how you work with the response: Ask → Review → Refine → Decide
What This Looks Like
The Key Principle
And one rule I reinforce in every session: First output = draft. Not decision. Refine further. The leaders who get value from AI don’t just accept the output. They shape it.
In a recent 1:1 coaching session, we focused purely on email and calendar. No big systems. No complex setup.
Just a handful of practical AI shortcuts.
Within that session:
Nothing revolutionary. Just the right use of the tools in the right places.
This is where the conundrum resolves.
Leaders don’t have time to learn AI properly. But without learning it, they don’t get the value. Traditional training struggles here. Too much theory. Not enough relevance.
Coaching works because:
Instead of learning AI separately, leaders learn it while doing their job. That’s what makes it stick. Coaching compresses the learning curve. What most people figure out over months, you start applying in hours.
Over time, the shift goes further.
From:
Using AI occasionally
To:
Embedding AI into workflows
And eventually:
Using AI as a structured thinking assistant
Supporting:
This is where AI stops being a productivity tool… and becomes part of how leaders think.
AI is scaling output across organisations. But it’s not yet scaling decision-making at the same rate. That gap is where leaders feel the pressure.
And it’s where the opportunity sits.
The leaders who get ahead won’t be the ones using AI the most. They’ll be the ones using it differently.
To:
Not produce more. But lead better.
If this feels familiar, you’re not alone. The solution isn’t more tools. It’s a better way to use the ones you already have.
The way I work with leaders is simple:
Sitting alongside you.
- Working through your real work.
- Applying AI where it actually matters. No theory.
- Just practical coaching, clear workflows, and immediate wins.
If you want to get up to speed quickly—and actually see value from AI—Coaching is the fastest way to make AI actually work in your day-to-day role.
