The writer, Dirk Hofmann, is the Co-Founder and CEO of DAIN Studios Germany. Dirk is a veteran in the consumer electronics industry having acted in various product, marketing, and strategy roles at Siemens, BenQ, Nokia, and Deutsche Telekom. At DAIN Studios, he focuses on helping organisations move beyond AI ambition — building the skills, structures, and mindset needed to put AI to work.
Many senior leaders still do not use AI tools in their daily work. This lack of personal engagement is becoming a strategic risk. AI already influences how decisions are made, how information flows and how organisations create value. Leaders who stay outside the experience limit their own judgment and slow down organisational progress.
Across clients and industries, I see the same pattern repeat. Organisations gain momentum when leaders work with AI tools themselves. Teams feel more confident experimenting, and use cases surface faster. When leadership keeps distance, hesitancy spreads and progress becomes inconsistent. The barriers are often cultural, not technical, and they usually start at the top.
Daily interaction with AI builds intuition that cannot be replaced by presentations or reports. Even short, routine tasks show how the tools interpret instructions, where they accelerate work and where they fall short. Leaders who lack this hands-on understanding often misread the potential of AI. They either overestimate what can be achieved or overlook opportunities that would produce clear business value.
Many leaders avoid AI tools for understandable reasons. They are unsure what is safe to share, they worry about exposing a lack of fluency in front of younger colleagues, and they feel they have no time to learn yet another system. These are real concerns. They are also leadership topics. The people who carry responsibility for the organisation need to shape the guardrails and learning culture around AI, instead of waiting for others to decide for them.
Leadership is no exception. Senior leaders do not need deep technical expertise, but they do need familiarity. Drafting, summarising, analysing and planning are core leadership activities, and AI now plays a meaningful role in all of them. A leader who ignores these tools slows down their own work and the work of others. It sends the message that AI is optional or peripheral when in reality it is rapidly becoming part of everyday operations.
Hands-on use does not replace governance. It makes governance better. Leaders who have worked with AI tools themselves ask sharper questions about data protection, model quality and operational risk. They can judge where human review is critical, where partial automation is acceptable, and how to set rules that protect the organisation without blocking progress.
The pace of development will only increase. Leaders who work with AI regularly will be better equipped to steer strategy, manage risks and support their organisations through ongoing change. A basic level of AI literacy is becoming an essential leadership skill. It strengthens judgment, improves decision making and helps organisations adapt in a fast-moving environment.
In practice, strong AI leadership habits often look simple. Preparing for key meetings with AI support once a week. Asking in project reviews how AI was used in the work and what was learned. Sharing one concrete example of AI use with the wider organisation each month. These small routines signal that AI use is normal, expected and safe. Over time, they will shape your strategy and culture more than any AI roadmap slide.