Artificial intelligence has taken over the spreadsheets, the scheduling and the first drafts that used to fill a manager's day. What's left, according to Anthony Belluccia, a behavioral scientist and industrial-organizational (I-O) psychologist at The Predictive Index in Boston, is the hardest part of the job, talking to people.

"AI is doing most of the doing," Belluccia said. "Instead of creating the dashboards, instead of doing the coding ourselves, which could be outsourced, I think what's left is all the talking. So the aligning, the explaining change, the giving feedback, building trust, that's what's left. AI can give you guidance for that, but it can't actually do that talking."

Belluccia said the companies that come out ahead with AI are the ones whose managers know how to have good conversations with their teams.

Confidence doesn't match reality

That shift is landing on managers who don't feel ready for it. The Predictive Index's 2026 AI and People Leadership Survey, conducted in July 2026 among nearly 400 managers and more than 200 CEOs and business leaders, found leaders and managers don't agree on how ready managers actually are for tough conversations.

Seventy-four percent of CEOs and business leaders described their managers as "very confident" handling tough conversations on their own. However, only 20% of managers said they'd rather prepare for one without a framework, a coaching guide or input from HR. Nearly half, 42%, said they know what they want to say but struggle with how to say it.

"That's a pretty big disconnect in how CEOs feel and the people who are actually having those conversations on the ground," Belluccia said. "Managers need help, they're saying."

That mismatch fits a broader pattern; a recent survey found nearly half of managers feel unprepared to lead the AI-native employees now joining their teams.

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