What Does It Mean to Lead in the AI Era?
The Menzies Leadership Foundation is partnering with the Aspen Institute Socrates Program on a global initiative exploring what effective, purpose-led leadership looks like in an era increasingly shaped by artificial intelligence.
The partnership will bring together diverse, cross-sector leaders in Australia and internationally to examine some of the most important questions emerging at the intersection of leadership, technology, ethics and human agency.
As artificial intelligence becomes more deeply embedded in organisations, institutions and everyday life, the challenge for leaders extends well beyond understanding the technology itself. It requires careful consideration of what should remain distinctly human: judgement, responsibility, values, relationships and the capacity to act with purpose.
For the Menzies Leadership Foundation, this work forms part of a broader inquiry into how leadership can be both ennobled and enabled in the AI era. This means exploring how intelligent technologies might expand human capability while also strengthening—rather than diminishing—the judgement, ethical awareness, agency and practical wisdom leaders need to act responsibly. The Foundation will initially explore these questions through the Aspen seminars, with its framing continuing to develop as insights emerge from the first convening and the broader initiative.
Through a series of Aspen Socrates seminars, participants will explore the emerging foundations of human and AI-enabled leadership, including how leaders can work with intelligent technologies without surrendering accountability, ethical judgement or a clear commitment to the greater good.
The seminars will draw on the Aspen Institute Socrates Program’s distinctive model of expert-moderated, text-based dialogue. Rather than relying on traditional presentations or predetermined answers, participants will engage with carefully selected readings, case studies and shared experiences to examine the tensions, values and opportunities shaping leadership in the AI era.
The initiative will include four seminars focused on The Next Frontier of Leadership: Purpose, Principle, and the Animate–Inanimate Divide, to be held across Australia, China, England, Singapore and the United States.
Each seminar will convene leaders from different sectors and backgrounds who may not ordinarily be in conversation with one another. Together, they will consider questions including:
- How does leadership change when artificial intelligence becomes an active participant in analysis, decision-making and organisational life?
- Which elements of leadership can be strengthened by AI, and which must remain grounded in human responsibility?
- How can leaders retain purpose, principle and accountability when decisions are increasingly mediated by machines?
- What does it mean to lead for the greater good in a world of human and artificial intelligence?
In an experimental dimension of the initiative, the Foundation will also work with partners to explore how large language models can participate in the seminar process — contributing to the capture, testing and development of ideas while allowing participants to examine the implications of engaging directly with AI.
Menzies Leadership Foundation CEO Liz Gillies said the partnership reflects the Foundation’s role in convening new forms of inquiry around complex leadership challenges.
“Artificial intelligence is changing not only the tools available to leaders, but the environment in which leadership is exercised. This work asks us to look beyond capability and efficiency and consider the deeper questions of purpose, responsibility and what it means to be human.”
“Our partnership with the Aspen Institute creates an opportunity to bring diverse leaders into a thoughtful global conversation — not to arrive at easy answers, but to build the understanding, relationships and practical insight needed to lead well through profound change.”
For almost 30 years, the Aspen Institute Socrates Program has convened cross-sector leaders from around the world through values-based seminars addressing pressing social, political and economic questions.
Insights from the seminars will help inform future research, writing and potential programs designed to strengthen leadership in the AI era. The partnership will also build a global community of interest and practice around the responsible evolution of human and AI-enabled leadership.
This initiative forms part of the Menzies Leadership Foundation’s broader work to identify and advance systemic, scalable approaches that help people clarify their purpose, strengthen their leadership capability and act collectively for the greater good.
As artificial intelligence reshapes how decisions are made, accountability is exercised and trust is built, the leaders who will matter most are those who keep judgement, ethics and purpose at the centre of the conversation — not the technology. The questions ahead are not only technical, but deeply human: what should remain ours to decide, and how do we lead with principle when machines increasingly shape the path?
At the Menzies Leadership Foundation, this is precisely the kind of leadership we exist to support. Through our partnership with the Aspen Institute Socrates Program, we are bringing together cross-sector leaders from Australia and around the world to grapple with these questions through rigorous, values-based dialogue — not for easy answers, but for the understanding needed to lead well through profound change. Connect with our Work.
