Harvard Business Review has just published the third edition of its annual AI usage study – and the findings are revealing. More than 12,000 real AI use cases were analyzed from March 2025 to February 2026. The conclusion: AI usage is becoming broader, deeper – and emotionally more intense.
For leaders, three key signals emerge.
1. Emotional Support: The Underestimated Leadership Topic
Therapy and companionship is the most-used AI application for the second year in a row – accounting for 11% of all analyzed cases, twice as much as the previous year. People are turning to AI for relationship advice, emotional support, and as a safe space for questions they don’t want to ask anyone else.
This is not a marginal phenomenon. It says something about the state of our working world: loneliness, pressure, a lack of conversation partners at eye level. These needs don’t disappear – they shift. For leaders, the question becomes: What role do we play in ensuring that people on our teams find this support from other humans – and not exclusively from machines?
2. Thinkslop: The Silent Danger for Leaders
The HBR author uses a new term: “Thinkslop”: the growing tendency to hand off thinking to AI prematurely, before truly thinking things through yourself. In at least a quarter of the top use cases – from decision-making to idea generation to emails – AI is taking over parts of the human thinking process.
The risk: those who turn to AI too early lose access to their own ideas, lose practice in independent judgment – and may develop a false sense of intellectual confidence, because AI outputs always sound polished and convincing.
For leaders, thinkslop is particularly dangerous. Judgment, ethical reasoning, reading people and situations – these are core leadership competencies that cannot be delegated. The critical question is not whether AI helps with thinking, but which thinking deliberately stays in human hands.
The good news: AI can also function as a genuine sparring partner – when used as a mirror, not a genie. Those who use AI to challenge their own assumptions and find counterarguments sharpen their thinking rather than replacing it.
Source: Harvard Business Review, June 1 2026
“How people are really using AI in 2026” by Marc Zao-Sanders
3. Autonomous AI Agents: The Invisible Transformation
“Autonomous Agentic Operations” is a new entry in the top 10 – at number 6. AI is increasingly taking on tasks and processes independently, without humans steering every step. According to the HBR study, this is already happening in many organizations today – often in the shadows: employees are using AI agents on their own, without their leaders’ knowledge.
For leaders, this means two things: First, they need to understand how people and AI systems are working together in their teams – and which decisions must remain with humans. Second, it requires an open organizational culture in which AI usage is not hidden, but shaped together.
How Leaders21 responds
The HBR authors say it themselves: AI doesn’t have to be a crutch – it can also be a challenging sparring partner that sharpens your own thinking. That is exactly the standard we set for the AI Coach at Leaders21.
The AI Coach on the Leaders21 Platform is not a replacement for human coaching – but a low-threshold, always-available companion that supports leaders in sharpening their own thinking. Reflective questions, development impulses, orientation in everyday leadership – deliberately designed to activate rather than replace.
Because the most important leadership competency of the coming years may be this: knowing what to hand over to AI – and what not to.
👉 Learn about the AI-Coach
FAQ: AI and Leadership 2026
Thinkslop describes the tendency to delegate thinking to AI prematurely – before thinking things through yourself. For leaders, this is particularly critical because core competencies like judgment, ethical reasoning, and reading people can only be maintained and sharpened through active thinking.
AI is increasingly being used for emotional support – including in professional contexts. This shows that many people find too little space for open conversations in their working lives. Leaders who create psychological safety in their teams address this need at its root.
Autonomous AI agents independently carry out tasks, without human control at every step. According to the HBR study, employees are already using such agents today, often without their leaders’ knowledge. Leaders should actively open dialogue about how AI is being used in their teams – and set clear boundaries.
By being used as a sparring partner: to challenge assumptions, develop counterarguments, and sharpen one’s own thinking – not as a replacement for it. The AI Coach on the Leaders21 Platform is designed exactly according to this principle.
The AI Coach is a digital companion on the Leaders21 Platform that supports leaders with targeted reflective questions and development impulses. It is designed to activate independent thinking – not replace it. Available whenever it is needed, as a complement to human coaching and mentoring.
