Strategic Leadership and Organizational Adaptability in the Age of Artificial Intelligence

Abstract

Artificial intelligence (AI) is reshaping how organizations sense change, make decisions, and reconfigure resources. Yet technology alone does not make an organization adaptable; leadership choices determine whether AI investments translate into renewed capabilities or into scattered pilots. This paper develops a conceptual model linking strategic leadership to organizational adaptability in the age of AI. Integrating dynamic capabilities theory, organizational ambidexterity, upper echelons theory, and recent work on human-AI collaboration, we propose that strategic leadership influences adaptability through three AI-enabled dynamic capabilities: sensing, seizing, and transforming. We further propose that data and governance maturity, learning culture, and environmental dynamism condition these relationships. The paper presents a table of constructs, a leadership-role table, a flowchart of the proposed process, a research design, and implications for practice.