🚩 Tactical Memo 033: Where AI Quietly Creates Leadership Risk

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Read time: 7 minutes

Welcome to Tactical Memo, my newsletter where I share frameworks, strategies, and hard-earned lessons for leaders navigating project execution, AI fluency, and leadership.

If you’re looking for my cheat sheets and deep-dive guides, the vault is linked at the bottom of this email.

👉 Why Read This Edition: You will learn where AI quietly increases leadership risk, even while everything looks faster and cleaner on the surface. These risks do not show up in dashboards. They show up later as lost trust, delayed failures, and weakened decision-making.

The Briefing: Today’s Focus

• Why AI often hides problems instead of solving them

• The leadership risks I see most often in real teams

• How I actively counter these risks in my own work

• A reader’s question on when AI makes things worse

• Get my free cheat sheets

Quick Heads Up Before The End of 2025

The January cohort of AI-Powered Project Management is almost sold out and will be closing soon to keep the experience tight and hands-on.

If you’re ready to start strong in January, this cohort is ideal if you want:

• Momentum right out of the gate in 2026

• Live guidance while you build real, usable systems

• A clear execution reset before work ramps back up

If you’d rather not interrupt the holidays, the February cohort is now open as well.

One important note:

All enrollments before 12/31 lock in the current tuition.

Tuition increases starting January 1, 2026.

So your options are simple:

• Join January if you’re ready to move now

• Secure a February seat now and start fresh after the holidays

Either way, enrolling before 12/31 saves you money and guarantees your spot.

If you’ve been on the fence, this is the moment to decide.

Sign up for the January or February cohort now.

Why AI Risk Is Hard to See

Most leadership risk does not arrive loudly. It shows up quietly. A missed signal. A delayed escalation. A team that looks productive but feels off. AI makes this harder to notice, not easier.

I have seen teams adopt AI and move faster almost overnight. Plans get cleaner. Updates get smoother. Meetings get shorter. On paper, everything looks better. But underneath, something subtle changes. Leaders start to lose touch with the work. Judgment gets delegated. Accountability gets blurred.

The danger is not that AI makes bad decisions. The danger is that leaders stop noticing when decisions are being made without them.

The Rule: Speed Without Judgment Creates Invisible Risk

I do not worry about AI moving too fast. I worry about leaders losing their grip on why things are happening.

AI removes friction. Friction is not always bad. Sometimes friction is where leaders sense hesitation, resistance, or confusion. When AI smooths everything out, those signals disappear. If leaders are not intentional, they wake up to problems later, when options are limited.

AI should increase visibility, not replace engagement.

A Tactical Playbook: How I Actively Reduce AI-Created Leadership Risk

1. I force a human decision moment on every AI recommendation
Any time AI produces a recommendation that could materially affect delivery, cost, people, or reputation, I pause the flow and require a human decision moment. That means someone must say, out loud or in writing, “Here is the recommendation, here is what we are choosing, and here is why.” This sounds simple, but it prevents quiet delegation of judgment. You can implement this immediately by adding a single rule: no AI recommendation is executed without a named person explicitly approving it.

2. I add friction exactly where failure would hurt most
I do not remove all friction. I move it. I look at the project and ask where failure would be most expensive or embarrassing. That is where I add a human checkpoint. For example, before a decision goes to executives, before scope expands, or before a deadline shifts. I do not add meetings. I add moments of accountability. You can do this by marking two or three points in your workflow where someone must stop and explain the situation in plain language.

3. I require explanation, not just output, in reviews
When someone brings me an AI-generated plan, summary, or analysis, I do not ask if it is correct. I ask them to explain it without the document. If they cannot explain the logic, assumptions, and risks, we are not ready to move forward. This instantly reveals blind trust in outputs. You can start doing this in your next review by asking one question: “Talk me through this without looking at the screen.”

4. I assign a risk owner alongside every automation
For every automated workflow, I assign two roles. One person owns the outcome. Another person owns watching for failure. The second role exists solely to notice when things drift, stall, or feel wrong. This prevents slow, silent failures. You can do this by adding one line to your automation notes: “Risk owner: name.” It changes behavior immediately.

5. I reinsert human escalation paths on purpose
Automation often removes escalation by design. That is dangerous. I make sure there is a clear and easy way for people to raise concerns without breaking the system. I tell teams exactly when they should bypass automation and come to a human. You can do this by stating one simple rule: “If this affects timeline, trust, or reputation, escalate to me directly.”

6. I audit decisions after the fact, not just before
Once a month, I review one or two decisions that were heavily supported by AI. I ask what assumptions held, what failed, and what we missed. This keeps judgment sharp and prevents overconfidence. You can do this in thirty minutes by picking one recent decision and doing a short retrospective focused on reasoning, not results.

7. I listen for silence, not just signals
One of the biggest risks AI creates is silence. People stop speaking up because the system looks confident. I watch for who stops asking questions, who disengages, and who defers too quickly. When I notice it, I slow things down and invite dissent. You can do this by explicitly asking, “What are we not saying right now.

What To Do Right Now

(A 60-minute leadership reset)

• List the last three AI-supported decisions you approved.
  Write down who explicitly approved each one. If the answer is “the system” or “the team,” you have a leadership gap.

• Pick one automated workflow and insert a human stop point.
  Choose the point where failure would hurt most. Add one rule: someone must review and approve before it moves forward.

• Ask one person to explain an AI output without the screen.
  If they cannot explain the reasoning, assumptions, and risks in plain language, pause execution.

• Name a risk owner for one automation today.
  This person’s only job is to notice drift, confusion, or quiet failure. Write their name down.

• Reopen one “too smooth” process.
  If something feels effortless but important, ask what signals you might be missing.

• Say this sentence out loud to your team.
  “AI supports our work. Humans still own decisions and outcomes.”
  Repetition matters.

• Ask one uncomfortable question in your next meeting.
  “What could quietly go wrong here that we would not see until it’s too late.”

If you do just these seven things, you pull judgment back into the system without slowing execution. That is how you use AI without letting it weaken your leadership.

What’s Happening

Well, tomorrow is my birthday (the 29th), and this is the 2nd-to-last Tactical Memo of the year!

But that’s not what’s essential….

As more teams embed AI into daily work, I am spending more time helping leaders rebuild judgment and accountability.

In AI-Powered Project Management, this is one of the most important shifts we work through. We focus on designing systems that stay resilient when things go wrong, not just efficient when things go right.

The Briefing: Reader’s Question

Q: “How do I know when AI is helping my leadership versus quietly hurting it?”

A:
I watch for distance. When leaders start talking only in outputs and not in reasoning, risk is growing. When teams stop escalating issues early because the system looks fine, risk is growing. When decisions are accepted quickly but no one can explain why they were made, risk is growing.

AI should make leaders more engaged, not more removed. If you feel further away from the work than before, that is a signal worth taking seriously. I respond by pulling decision-making back into the open, slowing key moments down, and reinforcing human ownership.

The goal is not to use less AI. The goal is to lead more intentionally with it.

Got a question? Reply to this email, and I may feature it in a future edition. All questions stay anonymous.

Cheat Sheet Vault

p.s… As promised, click the link below to download my free cheat sheet and infographic vault.

👉 Access the Vault Here

Until next time,
Justin

✍️ From the Desk of Justin Bateh, PhD
Real-world tactics. No fluff. Just what works.