Starting Today, I’m the Boss!
Why AI Is Forcing Us All Into Leadership Roles—and What That Really Means.
We’re not interested in the latest tool, the next AI agent, or the thousandth “AI Will Replace All Jobs” headline. We’re interested in the human side of AI adoption in everyday life. Because the real shift we’re all feeling isn’t technical in nature.
For over 14 years, we’ve been digitizing German small and medium-sized businesses—with a focus on design, UX, and technology. Right now, we’re seeing that AI functionalities aren’t just another software rollout following the familiar “training, rollout, done” pattern. Why? Because what’s being rolled out suddenly doesn’t always follow a set path—it makes its own decisions. AI goes off track if you don’t guide it and ends up producing nonsense without even realizing it.
As a result, delegation suddenly becomes a core competency: clearly defining tasks, critically evaluating results, keeping track of multiple strands simultaneously, and deciding when to let things run their course, when to intervene, and when to stop. These aren’t just prompt tricks. These are leadership skills that are suddenly expected of everyone, not just “the bosses.”
This is exactly where friction arises: Many people never wanted to lead a team and now find themselves facing a kind of digital “team of interns” that delivers quickly, sounds convincing, but isn’t automatically correct.
In this talk, drawing on our experience and a healthy dose of humor, we’ll explore the impact this development has on teams, roles, and responsibilities. And why the crucial question isn’t “Can AI do this?” but rather: “Can and will humans lead it?”
Florian Franke and Fabian Stein (Co-Founders of sulit.digital)