Losing out on learning?

Business prof Lynda Gratton has some concerns about AI and the way it develops people at work.

In an article for the Harvard Business Review, the London Business School expert worries that AI may make the “pathways to mastery”, or high-level expertise and experience, disappear. It might also remove space for “calm reflection” and undermine key human characteristics such as “discernment, intuition, moral reasoning and, above all, empathy”.

But there is also a worry about human agency in the workplace: “Many of the new AI-enabled tools nudge behaviour, propose next steps or automate decisions.

“In so doing, however, they are also stripping people of the capacity to reflect, to choose, and to take ownership of their decisions.”

Sobering thoughts as you consider chucking several hundred mil at a chatbot for sales and accounting.

European movers and shakers

Could the EU use a corporate form that exists at the European level?

ESSEC Business School legal eagle Paul Oudin  thinks not, saying a single EU corporate designation is a bit limited, if you’ll excuse the pun.

Rather, he proposes an idea that may cause “harmonisation” advocates in Brussels to choke on their morning croissants.

“Instead of harmonising corporate law, the EU could seek to enhance corporate mobility by making it easier for companies to incorporate in whichever member state they choose.

“The hoped-for outcome of such a process would be regulatory competition among member states for the incorporation of start-ups within their territory and, ultimately, the emergence of a ‘European Delaware’ concentrating most incorporations of innovative companies.”

Well, that’s the fuse lit: stand back and wait for the multilingual explosion.

American dreams

The US National Association of Corporate Directors (NACD) has put out its annual poll of 24,000 members, and found that 60% believe “strategy execution” is their top priority in 2026.

Seems reasonable, as long as you assume corporate strategies survive beyond the next irate social media post from the White House (our sarky view, not the NACD—Ed.).

And that may be why only a third of those polled say they are “confident in their board’s collective skillset”.

Time to put the headhunters on speed dial.