From Transformational Leadership to Intelligent Leadership: How Leadership Styles Shape Organizational Performance in AI-Driven Organizations
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.65222/VIRAL.2026.5.34.54Keywords:
Abstract
Artificial intelligence is changing the nature of leadership and creating new managerial challenges related to decision-making, organizational learning, and employee engagement. In response to these transformations, the concept of intelligent leadership has emerged, emphasizing leaders' ability to combine human judgment, ethical considerations, and data-driven insights generated by intelligent systems. This paper explores the relationship between traditional leadership styles and organizational performance in AI-driven organizations and investigates the transition from transformational leadership toward intelligent leadership practices. The study develops a conceptual framework that integrates leadership theory with digital transformation and proposes that intelligent leadership capabilities mediate the relationship between leadership styles and organizational performance. The research adopts a quantitative approach based on survey data from organizations undergoing digital transformation and employs multivariate statistical techniques to test the proposed model. The anticipated findings indicate that leaders who effectively combine human values with intelligent technologies achieve higher levels of organizational adaptability, innovation, and performance. The paper contributes to both leadership and management literature by introducing intelligent leadership as a strategic capability for organizations operating in increasingly complex technological environments and by providing recommendations for managers navigating the transition toward AI-enabled organizational ecosystems.
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