ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE CHANGES MANAGERIAL WORK MORE THAN LEADER IDENTITY: A QUALITATIVE STUDY

Аннотация

This study examines how artificial intelligence affects leader identity and the practical content of managerial work. Based on nine semi-structured interviews with leaders and managers involved in AI implementation, it analyzes whether AI produces a deep transformation of leaders' self-understanding or primarily changes how the leadership role is enacted. Theory-informed thematic analysis reveals a persistent distinction between the core of leader identity and changing role expectations. Participants continued to define leadership through responsibility, direction, support, communication, judgment, and employee development. At the same time, AI altered leaders' tools, speed, autonomy, and work intensity, while AI literacy became a new criterion of competent and legitimate leadership. The paper concludes that, at the current stage, AI transforms the conditions under which leadership is performed and evaluated faster than it transforms leaders' deeper self-understanding. Identity change is therefore incremental: practices and expectations shift first, with deeper self-definition potentially following later.