Three mindfulness practices for leading as a human in the age of AI
One of the risks of the AI era is assuming that productivity is always the top priority. Instead, we should be prioritizing the quality of our experience along the way.
To do this, we need to exercise mindful agency. Let me explain.
If the goal is simply productivity, we’d be giving a lot of tasks to increasingly capable LLMs and AI agents. In this mode, we unthinkingly let AI generate the meal plan, draft the memo, summarize the report, or organize the information. Take the output and move on.
But is that what we really want (not even factoring in other social, environmental and ethical concerns)?
Recently, I proudly shared over dinner that I had an AI-generated meal plan in hand that would successfully use all of our perishables before an upcoming family trip. My 16-year-old daughter quickly responded: “Why would you do that? You’re so good at that and you really enjoy it.” Her question made me realize that I had unconsciously adopted a productivity mindset. I assumed that because AI could do the task, I should let it. I never stopped to ask whether the experience itself had value.
Choosing what to keep is unfamiliar territory. For most of our careers, this wasn’t really a choice. If you needed a first draft, you wrote it. If you needed to organize information, develop a plan, summarize research, or brainstorm ideas, you did the work yourself. Certain tasks simply came bundled with the role. We rarely stopped to ask which parts we particularly valued because there was no practical alternative.
AI changes that. And now we need to change too. To make thoughtful choices about delegation, we need to understand ourselves well enough to know what we want to keep.
Notice is what comes naturally to you.
This sounds obvious, but many of us have never examined it very carefully. We know what our jobs require. We know what we’re expected to do. But we may not have spent much time observing which parts of our work feel almost effortless and which require disproportionate effort. AI gives us an opportunity to become more intentional about those differences.
These are often the activities we take for granted because they feel so easy. Yet they may be exactly where our unique strengths and contributions lie.
Notice is what brings you satisfaction and enjoyment.
This is different from what comes naturally. Some activities come easily but don’t give us deep satisfaction or enjoyment. Others require effort but leave us feeling engaged, fulfilled, or curious. The age of AI invites us to pay attention to enjoyment as well.
Competence and enjoyment are not the same thing, and AI gives us a new opportunity to distinguish between them.
Notice is what feels meaningful enough to keep.
This may be the most important question of all. Many activities shape us while we are engaged in them. The thinking, reflecting, creating, synthesizing, and wrestling with difficult questions are not merely steps toward a result. They are often the process through which judgment, insight, confidence, and identity are formed.
Some experiences are valuable not because they produce a result, but because of the insights they generate while we do them.
In summary, as AI gives us increasing freedom to choose which parts of our work and lives we keep, we will need to become more attentive to ourselves. We will need to notice what comes naturally. We will need to notice what brings satisfaction and enjoyment. And we will need to notice which experiences are meaningful enough that we want to continue having them, even if a machine could do them perfectly.
The question is no longer simply what AI can do. The question is what we choose to do ourselves.
