Session 1a: Technological Advances and Considerations for Leadership

The current literature review attempts to combine the two topics “leadership” and “artificial intelligence” by highlighting the main perspectives in the research field of Leadership in Industry 4.0, dominated by Artificial Intelligence (AI)-based technologies. The current literature review identifies the three main directions of the scholarly and practitioner research: 1) AI as an additional assistance to current leadership functions (enhancement perspective); 2) AI to replace followers and leaders (replacement perspective); and 3) AI as “an oversold idea” (skeptical perspective). This literature review addresses a lack of substantial literature review and empirical data providing a balanced view of different perspectives on AI-based technologies’ influence on the leadership of modern organizations. The objective of the current paper is to conduct an initial literature review on Leadership in Industry 4.0, dominated by AI-based technologies, with emphasis on the AI-based technologies’ influence on the leadership of modern organizations. The current literature review attempts to answer the following research question: "What are the main perspectives of the scholarly and practitioner research directions in the period 2010-2020 in the field of Leadership in an Artificial Intelligence era?” Possible contribution of this paper is that identified perspectives could become a basis for future empirical research by the author and other scholars and practitioners in the field.

Keywords: leadership; Industry 4.0; artificial intelligence