AI for meaningful impact: Why leadership matters

While there is excitement about new technologies, there is also caution. Opening Esade’s session on ‘AI for Meaningful Impact’, General Director Daniel Traça defined the paradox of the current technological advancements. Yes, AI is developing at an extraordinary speed, delivering capabilities that would have seemed like science fiction only a few decades ago, but at the same time, many people feel uncertain about what the future will bring.

Traça cited a statistic from the Edelman Trust Barometer: “Only 32 per cent of the world population believes that the future is going to be better than the past.” The hints at a growing public anxiety about the social consequences of technological change, from AI’s impact on jobs to concerns about misinformation, inequality, and the uneven distribution of power in the digital economy.

If AI has so much potential, why does it also result in such deep uncertainty? The answer, Traça suggested, is not with the technology itself, but in how societies choose to manage it.

AI’s extraordinary promise

There is little doubt that AI is having a positive impact in many sectors. From healthcare and logistics to finance and education, AI systems are helping people analyze complex data, identify patterns, and make decisions with unprecedented speed and accuracy.

In medicine, AI tools are already facilitating early disease detection. Systems trained on large datasets can detect signs of cancer in medical images, identify subtle irregularities in heart rhythms, and predict strokes before symptoms appear.

AI can also allow access to knowledge for communities that were previously isolated. For example, a smartphone with AI-powered diagnostic tools can support healthcare decisions in locations where doctors are scarce.

For Traça, these cases help demonstrate how AI enhances, rather than replaces, human capabilities. He says, “Artificial intelligence, at its best, does not replace humanity. It augments what humanity can be.”

This capacity to amplify human abilities is why AI is increasingly viewed as a general-purpose technology, comparable to earlier breakthroughs such as electricity or the internet. According to estimates by McKinsey, generative AI alone could add between $2.6 trillion and $4.4 trillion to the global economy annually.

However, technological potential, Traça emphasized, does not automatically translate into social progress.

Technology alone does not create progress

Throughout history, we have experienced many innovations that have changed economies and societies. But improvements in people’s lives were rarely immediate.

Traça pointed to the Industrial Revolution. In the early decades of industrialization, productivity and wealth increased rapidly. Factories expanded, new industries were born, and economic output boomed. But improvements in living standards came later.

In fact, in some of the countries at the forefront of the Industrial Revolution, life expectancy initially declined due to long working hours, unsafe work environments, and limited social protections. The benefits of economic growth were not felt evenly across society.

The broader gains of industrialization only began to emerge later, once new regulations were introduced. Labor laws improved working conditions. Education systems trained workers for new types of jobs. Social safety nets offered support during periods of economic difficulty.

These developments did not happen automatically. They required political choices, institutional innovation, and long-term leadership. As Traça says, “Technology alone does not guarantee progress. Stewardship does.”

This ethos also applies today. Technological breakthroughs, such as AI, may create opportunities for growth and innovation, but whether those opportunities result in prosperity for all depends on how we govern them.

The real challenge: governance and global cooperation

AI technology itself isn’t the core challenge, but rather how it is governed. So, the question is, how do leaders build systems and institutions to manage this rapid change?

When innovation moves faster than the capacity to govern it, uncertainty grows

Traça suggested that history again offers useful guidance. “One example comes from the management of nuclear technology during the twentieth century. Nuclear weapons represented one of the most powerful and potentially destructive technologies ever created. Yet despite intense geopolitical rivalry, countries were able to establish international agreements and institutions designed to limit their proliferation and reduce the risk of catastrophic conflict.”

These agreements didn’t always come to fruition perfectly, but they demonstrated that cooperation on global technological risks is possible even in a complex international environment.

But, “When the pace of innovation outstrips our collective ability to manage its consequences, uncertainty grows,” explains Traça.

This imbalance explains the instability that many people feel today. Globalization, climate change, and digital transformation have altered economies and societies in ways that existing institutions were not prepared to handle.

For Traça, this means that international cooperation is essential. Many of the challenges associated with AI, from data governance to ethical standards, cannot be managed by a single country or company. They require collaboration across borders and sectors.

The role of leadership in the AI era

Leadership has a key role to play in determining how the challenges posed by technology are addressed.

There’s a new onus on educational institutions to prepare leaders for the AI era. It’s no longer sufficient to just teach technical skills or analytical tools. Future decision-makers need guidance to understand the broader impact of the systems they will design and manage.

“Business education must prepare leaders not only to optimize systems, but to understand the lives that those systems are going to shape,” says Traça.

This perspective is embodied in Esade’s broader approach to technology and innovation. At 4YFN, the school brought together entrepreneurs, researchers, and industry leaders to explore how AI can be guided by human values and used to generate social well-being, economic inclusion, and long-term sustainability.

The defining choice of the AI age

“Artificial intelligence will shape the next chapter of human history,” says Traça. “The question is not whether it will transform our world. The question is whether we will shape that transformation with wisdom.”

The future of AI, Traça suggested, will depend not only on AI itself, but on the values that guide those who design, deploy, and regulate it.