Scaling Faster Than Your Leaders? AI Won’t Fix That.
By Marly DiFruscio
The world is still desperately working to understand and implement AI in a way that will be profitable and efficient. In fact, worldwide AI spending is forecast to reach about $2.52 trillion in 2026, and AI expenditures in 2025 were projected to be near $1.5 trillion in 2025. This is a key illustration of the rapid growth in corporate AI budgets.
Organizations are obviously investing heavily in AI… but they are underinvesting in the emotional intelligence required to lead at scale.
It’s true that AI increases speed and productivity, but the key here is that the emotional intelligence of leaders determines the direction that AI, and ultimately, the company takes. Right now, many tech and biotech companies are scaling complexity faster than they are scaling leadership maturity. This gap in growth is where culture is abandoned, attrition increases, and the cost becomes obvious.
The Growth Myth: Performance ≠ Leadership
In high-growth organizations, the pattern is predictable: individual contributors who demonstrate their effectiveness, efficiency, and bias for strategy and metrics get promoted into a management role. They are technically exceptional, reliable, and capable of understanding how to do the job. Many assume that they will also be strong people leaders… but the data says otherwise.
Only 1 in 10 people possess the natural talent to manage effectively.
82% of managers are “accidental managers”, where they are promoted without formal management training.
Managers account for 70% of the variance in team engagement.
This data directly points to the fact that when leadership capabilities aren’t being scaled alongside AI, software, and organizational productivity, then engagement doesn’t either. There is a focus on scaling revenue and tools, but not on scaling emotional intelligence, trust, accountability, self-care, or executive presence at the same rate. This creates divided teams, burnout, and a severe lack of psychological safety at all levels of business.
AI Is a Cultural Multiplier
The important thing to remember is that AI is not a leadership solution; rather, it amplifies culture and magnifies what is already being modeled by leaders. If leaders are clear, emotionally intelligent, with the trust of their teams, peers, and external partners, and capable of holding accountability and presence, then AI will increase productivity and focus around them.
However, if leaders are reactive, unclear, lacking in resilience, or unable to delegate, then AI will only accelerate their confusion, burnout, and inability to scale their organization.
Research has always consistently shown the impact of emotionally intelligent leadership:
Highly engaged teams show 23% greater profitability.
Employees who experience empathy from leadership report 76% higher engagement.
94% of employees say they would stay longer at a company that invests in their learning and development.
AI isn’t going to create engagement and psychological safety in your organization. Leaders are going to create that.
Psychological safety, which is a critical driver of innovation identified in Google’s Project Aristotle, and something Level Up EQ develops intentionally inside organizations, comes from leadership behavior, not productivity tools.
When companies invest heavily in systems and AI but underinvest in their human development, they create a widening gap between capability and maturity. They are investing in the potential failure of their people, teams, and organization.
The Real Competitive Advantage
The organizations that will find themselves at the top of the booming AI era will not be the ones that only adopt new software and AI software. It will be the organizations that invest in their people. Technology will continue to scale the output of humans… but humans still determine the direction of your technology and your organization. Emotional intelligence is the only way to scale humans. The question truly becomes whether you are investing in your leaders at the same level you are investing in your tech. Are you investing in the driver of your vehicle as much as the vehicle itself? I don’t know about you, but a 16-year-old at the wheel of a Bugatti Mistral does not exactly inspire confidence.
For organizations and leaders navigating rapid growth, this isn’t about choosing between technology and people. It’s about developing both with intention. When organizations invest in leadership development, psychological safety, and emotional intelligence, they are taking active steps to invest and protect their culture while they scale. If you’re thinking about how to strengthen your leadership bench, Level Up EQ would love to be part of that conversation.
Level Up EQ partners with fast-paced, high-growth organizations to ensure leadership capability scales alongside revenue, technology, and complexity. Your organizational performance shouldn’t come at the expense of humanity or the welfare of your people.