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Some of the world\u2019s most successful business leaders are voracious readers. Bill Gates told The New York Times in 2016 that he reads 50 books a year. Warren Buffett is said to spend as much as 80% of his working day reading and thinking. In 2000, when a Columbia Business School student asked him how to prepare for a career in investing, Buffett pointed to a stack of reports and told the class to read 500 pages like that every day, because knowledge \u201cbuilds up, like compound interest.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
But a new wave of executives are letting AI do the reading for them, using it to summarize reports, draft emails and, in some cases, speak on their behalf. More than two-thirds (68%) of leaders in the U.S. and U.K. turn to AI to summarize documents and 58% use it to draft emails, according to a survey by General Assembly and coaching firm EZRA.\u00a0<\/p>\n
LinkedIn CEO Ryan Roslansky uses AI to help write almost every \u201chigh-stakes\u201d email he sends. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella relies on AI agents to digest his inbox and prepare him for meetings. Meanwhile, Meta\u2019s Mark Zuckerberg is reportedly building an AI clone of himself that is trained on his tone and mannerisms and can answer staff questions.\u00a0<\/p>\n
For time-starved CEOs fielding demands from employees, investors, and the public across multiple channels, AI offers a way to keep up. \u201cCEOs have stuff coming at them from every corner all the time, and some degree of summary is useful,\u201d says David Meadvin, a former Senate speechwriter who now runs executive advisory firm One Strategy Group. Condensing information for the boss is hardly new, he adds: \u201cWe\u2019ve had junior people doing news summaries since the beginning of time.\u201d Yet he also calls AI \u201creliably average\u201d and warns it can \u201cdilute brilliance.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
A C-suite communication crisis\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
David Shelley, CEO of book publisher Hachette, goes further, warning that leaders who lean too heavily on AI are heading for a communication crisis. \u201cI predict a growing dissonance between how someone appears in their written statements and how they are in real life,\u201d he tells Fortune.\u00a0<\/p>\n
That disconnect could prove costly at a moment when employees are looking to their bosses to bring the workforce together. In Edelman\u2019s 2026 Trust Barometer, 73% of employees said CEOs have an obligation to build trust and bridge divides, but only 44% said their leaders were doing it well.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cBeing able to write a good email yourself as a CEO is incredibly important,\u201d Shelley tells Fortune. While he acknowledges that a communications team or AI could make him more compelling, he is reluctant to lose the human quality in his writing.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Natalie Sutton, a communications consultant and executive coach, says employees are quick to spot messages that do not sound like the boss. \u201cFluency is becoming cheap. Sincerity is becoming scarce,\u201d she says. \u201cA slightly imperfect message that clearly came from the CEO will outperform a flawless one that could have come from anyone.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Shelley also worries that outsourcing to AI blunts a leader\u2019s instincts. \u201cBeing a leader, you often have to think on your feet,\u201d he says. Relying on AI and other people to communicate, he adds, \u201cdulls the brain.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Studies have linked heavy reliance on AI with weaker critical thinking, a phenomenon known as cognitive offloading. In a 2025 MIT Media Lab study, participants who wrote essays with ChatGPT showed the weakest brain engagement of any group, and most could not quote from essays they had just written.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIf AI does the first draft, leaders skip the part where they work out what they actually think,\u201d Sutton says. \u201cWhen information arrives pre-digested, you lose the habit of sitting with something messy long enough to understand it. I worry we\u2019ll have a generation of executives who can approve a message but can\u2019t build one.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The reading gap\u00a0<\/p>\n
As head of one of the world\u2019s largest publishers, Shelley believes AI is accelerating the decline in reading for pleasure. Reading is the most commonly cited habit among billionaires, according to a JPMorgan report.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Almost half (46%) of U.K. adults said distractions made it hard to focus on reading, and 19% said their ability to concentrate had worsened over the past three years, according to 2025 polling by U.K. charity Reading Agency.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Shelley believes AI is accelerating this decline by changing how people consume and share information. \u201cI think we\u2019re all being trained to just want shortcuts,\u201d he says.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
This is putting certain skills, such as the ability to follow a complex argument, weigh competing views, or develop a coherent point of view, at risk. \u201cOne of the key attributes of great leaders is intellectual curiosity and empathy,\u201d Shelley says. Losing these qualities will make for a \u201cworse C-suite,\u201d he adds.\u00a0<\/p>\n
That matters for leaders whose job depends on reading the room and understanding different viewpoints. Psychologists David Comer Kidd and Emanuele Castano of the New School for Social Research have found that reading literary fiction can sharpen people\u2019s ability to read others\u2019 emotions.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Some leaders argue that AI could end up making those human skills more valuable, predicting a renaissance in soft skills as the technology takes over rote work. Daniela Amodei, president and cofounder of Anthropic, has argued that because AI models are already strong at STEM, qualities such as emotional intelligence, communication, and curiosity are now at a premium.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Meadvin uses reading to broaden his perspectives and protect his mental health. \u201cWith disruption now constant,\u201d he adds, \u201cstaying ahead depends on self-awareness and a commitment to life-long learning.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
The immediacy of AI can make it an appealing shortcut for busy executives, but an overreliance on these tools could weaken some of the skills that are essential for leadership.\u00a0<\/p>\n
#Hachettes #CEO #shortcuts #creating #worse #Csuite<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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