June 10: A significant disconnect between executive ambition and organisational reality is stalling the integration of artificial intelligence across the world’s leading companies. This is according to a new study by leadership consultancy The Positive Group – conducted in collaboration with researchers from Harvard Business School, RSGI, and Hubel Labs – which states the primary obstacle to a successful AI strategy is not the limitations of technology, but a deficit in critical leadership behaviours at board and C-suite levels.
The report AI Success: The Leadership Factor, is based on an in-depth qualitative study of 35 senior leaders from global giants including HSFKramer, ServiceNow, McDonald’s and Grant Thornton, spanning professional services, financial services, consumer brands, tech, and life sciences. The findings reveal a stark “AI Ambition-Maturity Gap”: while 86% of leaders interviewed aim for advanced AI maturity within the next 12–24 months, only 28% have successfully embedded AI into core workflows to deliver measurable value at scale.
The research identified three specific day-to-day areas to address.
1.The Role Model Gap
Only 33% of executives who took part in the study see their leaders demonstrate adaptability, highlighting a huge disconnect between “talking” and “doing.” Leaders need to move beyond theory and actively use AI tools in their daily workflows. Showing vulnerability by experimenting and failing in front of the team builds the psychological safety needed for others to innovate.
2.The Communication Gap
While 65% of the study respondents believe their leadership team can tell a motivating story for AI use, only 45% said they keep their teams regularly informed about actual AI developments. Leaders need to close the 20-point gap between general motivation and consistent, practical updates.
3.The Training Disconnect
Just 62% of the study respondent believe their leaders encourage employees to take ownership of AI innovation. The fact this number is not higher could be linked to inadequate AI training programmes. Only six out of ten (59%) of those who took part in the study said their organisations have structured AI training in place for all, 28% said it was for senior leaders or specific teams only; 10% said training was managed on a case-by-case basis, and 4% said training was not prioritised at all.
The Human Barrier to Technical Progress
The study suggests that the technical AI hurdle is being cleared far more quickly than the human one. The study identifies four recurring behavioural barriers that are currently outpacing traditional corporate planning cycles:
1.Continuous Disruption: AI capabilities evolve so rapidly that they render standard strategic cycles obsolete, leading to executive fatigue and short-termism.
2.Fragmented Expectations: A lack of shared meaning regarding AI’s purpose leads to a proliferation of “hype-driven” pilots without consistent criteria for success.
3.Emotional Polarisation: AI unsettles established expertise hierarchies, creating a divide between enthusiasm and deep-seated anxiety regarding professional identity and relevance.
4.The Innovation-Risk Tension: In regulated environments, the absence of clear leadership on trade-offs leads to either paralysing caution or unstructured, risky experimentation.
The Data on Leadership Influence
The study provides a rare quantitative link between leadership culture and technical maturity. Leaders in “high-maturity” organizations – those successfully scaling AI -rated their management teams significantly higher across three key behavioural metrics compared to those in the pilot stages. They reported:
40% higher adaptability-related behaviours
30% higher clarity-related behaviours
25% higher trust-related behaviours
Will Marien, CEO of The Positive Group, emphasizes that the “Next Chapter” of the AI revolution will be written by people, not code.
“Over the past few years, organisations have explored artificial intelligence through pilots and experimentation. Today, we are moving beyond exploration to the pressing challenge of maximising value from these technologies,” says Marien. “That shift raises the question: what does effective leadership look like in the AI era? Real value emerges when AI is paired with judgement, meaning and shared understanding. It is leadership that will determine how powerfully that partnership performs.”
A New Framework for the C-Suite
The report argues that the most successful organisations are moving away from treating AI as a “tech project” and are instead adopting three specific leadership modes:
Sensemaking and storytelling: The ability to translate complex AI concepts into plain language and define what “good” looks like for the specific business context “Storytelling and simplicity are powerful drivers of adoption.
“We need to explain AI in plain language, simple enough that even my six-year-old could understand it, because accessibility builds curiosity and trust.” – Tarv Nijjar, Global Head of Product & Platform Transformation, McDonalds, who took part in Positive Group’s study.
Mediation and trust: Building trust by making uncertainty visible and acknowledging the legitimate emotional responses of a workforce facing disrupted roles.
Perry Burton, Head of Partner Learning and Development, Grant Thornton UK, who took part in the study, said: “In partnerships, you can’t simply tell people what to do. Change has to come through influence and example. That’s challenging when people are moving fast, feel pressure to deliver, and are understandably anxious about how their roles might evolve.”
Adaptive Execution: Reframing experimentation as structured learning, where leaders model the use of tools themselves and provide explicit permission to “stop” initiatives that do not align with strategy.
“Successful AI leadership requires both strategy and courage. There’s enormous pressure to chase every trend, but the real discipline lies in holding to a clear strategy and resisting the temptation to be reactive.” – Isabel Parker, White & Case, Chief Innovation Officer, who took part in the study.
As global markets face a fast-moving regulatory environment and shifting expertise hierarchies, The Positive Group’s research suggests that the highest-leverage move an executive team can make is not increasing their R&D budget, but strengthening the behavioural capabilities of their leaders.
“The gap is not primarily technical, but behavioural,” the report concludes.
Marien adds: “Strengthening these capabilities may be the highest-leverage move organisations can make as AI reshapes how work is done.”
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