How To Add Values-Based Leadership To Your 2026 AI Business Strategy

AI is at the center of business strategies for 2026—and so must values-based leadership to unlock the organization’s potential.

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With business strategies for 2026 well underway, leaders are increasingly relying on AI to boost productivity without dramatically increasing the company’s headcount. Companies across sectors are using AI tools analyze the competitive landscape across every player, large and small, and predict the next wave of innovation. When it comes to business strategy itself, leaders are looking at automating more processes, as well as the potential for agentic AI in functions such as finance, supply chain management, customer service, recruiting, sales support, and marketing. And yet, a report by MIT Media Lab in July found that 95% of surveyed organizations see no measurable returns from their AI initiatives. This is because success is defined by the teams executing a strategy, not the software tools they use.

As promising as AI is for improving efficiency, increasing productivity, and reducing costs, 2026 business strategies cannot rely on technology alone. The full benefit of AI can best be realized when combined with values-based leadership, which emphasizes relationship building and influencing people both inside and outside the organization. In short, when the capabilities of AI are combined with a foundation in values-based leadership that can lead to greater success in 2026.

Using AI For Business Makes Focusing On The Right People Even More Valuable

Embedding values-based leadership in AI-driven business strategies is crucial—not in spite of the workplace disruption being caused by advanced technology, but because of it. Consider the hypothetical scenario of a company that, thanks to automation and the efficiencies of AI, can reduce headcount significantly—perhaps as much as 20%. Such a reduction could give the impression that people are less valuable, adding fuel to the doomsday theories that AI will replace humans.

On the contrary, amid a significant headcount reduction due to AI, the remaining 80% of the company workforce is actually more valuable. While AI takes over tasks that tap its exceptional computational and analytical powers, people’s emotional intelligence will still be crucial in determining the quality of communication, creativity, and relationship building, both internally and externally.

Unlocking greater potential for the people who remain in the company will take strong values-based leadership to motivate, engage, and develop everyone at every level. Otherwise, as AI is deployed, people may feel undervalued, demotivated, and concerned about their future. As part of talent development strategies for 2026, values-based leaders need to demonstrate that people truly do matter most, with tangible actions such as offering additional training and providing new opportunities for employees to grow their careers. The overarching message from values-based leaders is that, while AI is an enabler, a company cannot operate without people.

3 Tips For Building A Business Strategy For 2026

As business leaders develop and implement their 2026 business strategies, here are four areas in which they can get the most benefit from AI and values-based leadership as a formula for success:

1. Tap the computational power of AI.

When I was CEO of Baxter International, a $12 billion healthcare company, strategic planning needed to encompass the 103 countries in which we operated—everything from their economies to their regulatory environments. Manually conducting an in-depth analysis of each country consumed so much time and attention that it was virtually impossible. So we focused our projections on the biggest countries in which we operated and extrapolated the rest from prior years.

That was 25 years ago. Today, AI changes a human team’s capacity. Teams can now use AI tools to gather and summarize vast amounts of information, analyzing huge datasets. If I was running a company with operations in over a hundred countries today, my team could use AI tools to identify opportunities beyond the biggest countries. This applies at all levels of the company. The Washington Post gave the example of a 26-year-old product analyst who is using generative AI to analyze data, yielding answers in a fraction of the time it would have taken him to perform the same tasks manually. The result: less time on the analysis, more time spent writing a higher-quality report.

2. Use AI to customize the customer experience.

In healthcare, where I have spent my entire career, one of the most frustrating customer experiences is when patients call a doctor’s office or hospital and spend an extended period of time on hold, waiting for someone to answer their question or direct them to the correct department. It’s a pain point for patients (the customers) and a cause for significant dissatisfaction. To improve the customer experience, one hospital system I work closely with is now using AI to assess why someone is calling and then direct them to the department or specialist they need to reach, using AI to connect customers with a live person more quickly.

Another innovative example of improving the customer experience is recording patient interviews (with the person’s consent) during each doctor’s visit. AI then analyzes and summarizes the interviews, both medical information and details about a person’s life—such as the patient in her 80s who mentions she has a dog named Charlie. What might seem to be a very small anecdote could hold the key to more productive follow-up phone calls. When a nurse or other member of the staff contacts the patient, the first question is not “Are you taking your medicines as prescribed?” (an estimated 50% of patients do not). Instead, the doctor’s office first asks about Charlie, which builds rapport, and then asks about taking the medication as prescribed. It’s an example of a patient experience being enhanced by AI—in the same way the technology is being used across multiple industries to create individualized experiences.

3. Gain a balanced perspective on AI potential with human input.

As the first two examples show, AI offers significant potential to improve operations. However, as research shows, that potential is often not yet evident in the bottom line. As a Forrester report observed, only 15% of corporate decision-makers said AI improved profitability over the past 12 months. “Given the high payback expectations from AI investments now, we believe that CEOs will pull more CFOs into AI decisions, leading enterprises to delay 25% of their planned spend into 2027,” according to the report.

This is a case for values-based leadership to emphasize human input. The goal is to gain a balanced perspective from multiple opinions and viewpoints, determining where and how AI can be most effective—and where the hype does not match what’s being delivered.

Further illustrating the point, Korn Ferry, in its 2026 talent acquisition trends, observed that while companies are turning increasingly to AI, talent acquisition leaders rate the human abilities of critical thinking and problem-solving as the most critical skills for 2026. “Here’s the thing—anyone can learn to use ChatGPT in a few weeks. But knowing when it’s giving you unreliable information? Spotting the difference between helpful insights and convincing but flawed output? That requires critical thinking, and those same skills make you infinitely better at using AI effectively,” the Korn Ferry researchers observed. In short, human EQ will be needed to unlock AI IQ.

4. Build relationships and enhance trust with values-based leadership.

A cornerstone of values-based leadership is the ability to positively influence others at all levels of the organization. This can only happen by building relationships with trust. For example, a values-based leader seeks input from across the organization on how people are feeling—about their jobs, about their future, about the changes that are happening around them, including AI. The more uncertain people feel, the more a values-based leader communicates—with greater frequency and transparency. Otherwise, trust erodes and relationships suffer. This may sound basic, but amid rapid change and competing priorities the need for constant communication can too easily be overlooked.

Without question, business strategies for 2026 will put more focus on AI, embedding the technology in functions across the organization. Without values-based leadership, however, those strategies are at risk of being one-sided: focusing only on technology without an appreciation for the humans who use it.