The Rise of AI Agents: We Can't Let Real Human Leadership Suffer (IMHO)

After hearing about Amazon's plan to pursue "un-replaced attrition" (replacement) of upwards of a half a million people with robots, I began to think deeply about the role technology has and is playing in the hospitality world. As deep users of AI and automations at Imagine Lab, we've seen the impact and the exponential rate at which the technology is disrupting workflows and people plans within our business. I had a recent interaction with a young manager in a client's business who was telling me how her new AI assistant handles her scheduling, drafts her emails, and even suggests responses to team conflicts. "It's incredible," she said. "I feel so much more efficient." I couldn't help but wonder if she's actually getting better at leading people, or just better at managing her AI.

That moment stuck with me. As someone who's built a career in hospitality, an industry that lives and dies by human connection, I've watched AI agents proliferate across every corner of our business. And while I'm genuinely excited about the possibilities and it's at the core of what we do, I can't shake a nagging concern: Are we inadvertently training a generation to be great at managing algorithms but forgetting how to lead people?

The Efficiency Trap

Let's be honest, AI agents are seductive. Personally, I'm already all in. They never have bad days, they don't need coaching on emotional intelligence, and they execute flawlessly on well defined parameters. In hospitality, I've seen operators use AI to optimize everything from revenue management to staff scheduling. The results are impressive: better margins, fewer errors, more predictable outcomes.

But here's what I've noticed happening in real time: when everything becomes automated and optimized, we start measuring success differently. We celebrate the elimination of friction rather than the creation of meaningful experiences. We reward efficiency over empathy. Friction is critical to creating leaders. Good friction is a strategic and intentional slowdown that forces people to think more deeply, challenge assumptions, and produce better outcomes. Effective leaders know when to inject this resistance into a process to stimulate better results. Good friction encourages critical thinking, stimulates innovation, builds resilience and character, fosters ownership, and ultimately, as a result of all of this, in my opinion, creates better decisions.

I recently read that U.S. managers now oversee three times more people than they did in 2015, largely thanks to AI-assisted oversight and automated reporting. On paper, this looks like progress. But ask anyone who's been shaped by a great mentor (and I count numerous in my career), and they'll tell you: leadership development happens in the small moments, the one-on-ones, the messy conversations that can't be automated away.

What I Know We're Losing

The most concerning trend I see is the erosion of what I call "leadership intuition", that sixth sense great leaders develop about people, situations, and timing. It's the ability to read between the lines when an employee says they're "fine" but clearly aren't. It's knowing when to push a team harder and when to give them space to breathe. It's the instinct to recognize opportunity in chaos.

As Harvard's Karim Lakhani puts it: "AI won't replace humans, but humans with AI will replace humans without AI." I believe this is true, but with a critical caveat: only if we remain intentional about developing the irreplaceable human skills that no algorithm can replicate.

Think about hospitality for a moment. Yes, AI can optimize room rates and predict maintenance needs. But can it sense when a guest is having a tough day and could use a genuine smile? Can it recognize the moment when a team member needs encouragement versus accountability? Can it navigate the delicate balance of pushing for excellence while preserving dignity?

These aren't technical problems to be solved, they're human experiences to be lived and learned through practice.

Managerial Overload

Here's a statistic that should worry all of us: the average manager's span of control has expanded dramatically, but mentorship opportunities have plummeted. When I started in this business, senior leaders typically worked closely with 5-7 direct reports. Now it's common to see spans of 15-20 people, with AI handling much of the "routine" management work.

But what we're calling routine is often where real leadership (and the resulting EQ) development happens. The budget review where you teach someone to think strategically. The difficult guest situation where you model grace under pressure. The project debrief where you help someone see their blind spots.

When AI handles these interactions, we lose what I think of as "leadership apprenticeship", the organic way that management wisdom gets passed down through generations of practitioners.

How We Approach It

This is exactly why we've been so intentional about how we integrate AI at Imagine Lab and for our clients. We don't use technology to replace human judgment; we use it to create more space for human judgment to flourish.

Take our approach to F&B strategy development. Yes, we use AI to analyze market data, predict trends, and optimize operational efficiency. But the AI isn't making creative decisions about concept development or community building: it's handling the analytical heavy lifting so our team can spend more time understanding what makes a neighborhood tick, what brings people together, and how to create experiences that genuinely matter.

We've found that when you remove the friction of data analysis and administrative overhead, something beautiful happens: people rediscover their capacity for imagination, relationship-building, and strategic thinking.

Human Skills Are Going To Matter More Than Ever

Recent research shows something fascinating: the same leadership qualities that make someone effective at managing human teams also predict success in managing AI agents. Leaders who ask more questions, engage in genuine dialogue, and use collaborative language ("we" and "us" rather than "I" and "you") consistently outperform those who default to command-and-control approaches.

This tells me that good leadership has always been about the same core things: curiosity, empathy, the ability to see patterns and possibilities, and the skill to bring out the best in others: whether those "others" are human or artificial.

But here's the catch: these skills atrophy without practice. And if we're not careful, AI can insulate us from the very experiences that develop these capabilities in the first place. Even I can feel the muscles weakening.

How We're Moving Forward

I don't think the solution is to reject AI: that would be both naive and counterproductive. Instead, I believe we need to become much more intentional about what we automate and what we preserve for human development.

At Imagine Lab, we've started asking different questions: Rather than "What can AI do for us?" we ask "What should AI do for us so we can focus on what matters most?" Rather than "How can we become more efficient?" we ask "How can we become more effective at creating experiences that change how people feel?"

This means being selective. We'll use AI to handle repetitive analysis, but we insist on human judgment for strategic decisions. We'll automate administrative tasks, but we protect time for mentoring and relationship-building. We'll embrace AI for operational optimization, but we double down on human creativity for experience design.

The Leadership We Need Now

I think we're at an inflection point. The leaders who emerge from this AI revolution won't be those who've mastered prompt engineering or dashboard management. They'll be the ones who've learned to amplify their human capabilities: who've become more curious, more empathetic, more imaginative: while using AI as a tool to create space for what matters most. 

In hospitality, this means leaders who can use technology to remove friction from operations while investing that saved time and energy into creating authentic connections with guests and developing their teams' potential. It means recognizing that the future belongs not to those who can manage AI, but to those who can inspire people in an age of AI. Gen X is particularly suited for this having sat on the fence between the analog and digital revolution...as long as they keep going to the leadership gym.

The art of leadership doesn't have to disappear, but it does have to evolve. And the leaders who understand this distinction will shape what comes next. Regardless, it's here now.

At Imagine Lab, we're committed to using AI and automation to enhance human potential, not replace it.