MIT Sloan Management Review

AI Can Improve How Humans and Robots Work Robots and humans are essential partners in most warehouse settings. AI can help them work together more effectively.

The modern warehouse represents the frontier of human-robot collaboration.

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Stop Deploying AI. Start Designing Intelligence The next frontier for AI leaders is learning to design AI-powered intelligence environments.

Stephen Wolfram’s philosophical insights on computation offer actionable principles for designing intelligence environments that achieve lasting value from AI.
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How to Scale GenAI in the Workplace Novo Nordisk’s GenAI deployment — one of the largest to date — offers lessons for leaders on scaling their own AI efforts.

Enthusiasm plateaus. Training gaps. AI shaming. Pharma giant Novo Nordisk faced and beat all these challenges while growing generative AI tool usage.

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Scenario Planning Amid Radical Uncertainty In today’s political climate, change can happen faster than leaders expect. Use scenario planning to manage uncertainty.

At chaotic times like these, leaders must fight paralysis and bad decisions — by carefully building an expansive scenario map.

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Why Robots Will Displace Managers — and Create Other Jobs A robot-driven shift in performance measurement and evolving skill needs are reshaping the workforce, research finds.

While robot-adopting companies may shed some management and middle-skilled jobs, research shows that robots will increase employee head counts overall.
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Find Your Phrase in Important Moments | Jim Detert and Aba Blankson Our natural response to inappropriate comments is fight or flight. Responding more effectively takes practice.

Do you want to stand up to disrespectful behavior? Leaders should choose a few phrases to use reliably and skillfully — and then practice speaking them, especially under stress.

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Building AI Capabilities Into Portfolio Companies at Apollo | Thomas H. Davenport and Randy Bean The private equity firm is applying disciplined AI-use strategies to make its portfolio companies more competitive.

The private equity firm is working hard to bring the powers of artificial intelligence to the companies it has invested in.

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RTO Mandates Won’t Fix a Broken Culture | Brian Elliott Leaders need to stop obsessing about in-office time and start focusing on the six enablers that change how people work.

Leaders need to stop obsessing about in-office time and start focusing on the six enablers that change how people work.

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How Companies Profit From an International C-Suite Businesses with more international C-suite executives than industry peers consistently outperform them.

A more multinational top management team can improve business operations and lead to higher profits.

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Five Leadership Lessons for ‘Tough’ CEOs | Brian Elliott and Sophie Wade A tough-leader persona isn’t effective for achieving long-term business results. That demands human-centered leadership.

While it may feel like command-and-control leadership is back in style, the truth is that emotionally intelligent leaders achieve more.
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AI Explainability: How to Avoid Rubber-Stamping Recommendations Experts debate if human oversight can replace the need for the explainability of AI systems.

Experts debate if human oversight can replace the need for the explainability of AI systems.

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Take CEO Succession Planning Off the Back Burner Most boards neglect engaging in timely planning for CEO transitions. Here’s how to make it a priority.

Boards know they should be doing it. Here’s what gets in the way, and how to make it an active practice.

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Read the summer issue of MIT SMR The summer 2025 issue includes articles that examine how business and society measure success.

Our Summer issue is out!
Our summer issue features a special report on strategic thinking and long-term planning amid the challenges of disruption.
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Ask Sanyin: What Does Vulnerability Really Mean for Leaders? Acknowledging your team’s anxieties and sharing your own can help build connection and optimism amid uncertainty.

In challenging times, employees need reassurance that their concerns are valid — and that they can persevere by working together as a team.

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How to Support Your Team When Uncertainty Is High Seven ways managers can support their teams amid instability to help workers maintain a sense of control and motivation.

During turbulent times, managers can take steps to help their direct reports feel more empowered, even when their control is limited.

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Three Essentials for Agentic AI Security AI agents can save time — and increase risk. This three-phase approach addresses agentic AI security threats.

As AI agents travel between systems and platforms, advancing business workflows, they also open vulnerabilities. Learn from one company’s experience addressing agentic AI security risks.

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How to Make Data Work Meaningful As data work increases, employee engagement declines. Leaders can implement strategies to make tasks more meaningful.

Data is invaluable, but working with it doesn’t always feel meaningful. Four strategies can help make data work more engaging.

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Use Design Choices to Prevent Imitation Design-based strategies can help companies protect their intellectual property and maintain their competitive advantage.

Adding or removing design elements to your innovations can help protect intellectual property.

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Use Design Choices to Prevent Imitation Design-based strategies can help companies protect their intellectual property and maintain their competitive advantage.

Adding or removing design elements to your innovations can help protect intellectual property.
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Want AI-Driven Productivity? Redesign Work Wider options for finding talent, coupled with technology such as AI, are opening up possibilities to reshape work.

To capitalize on the promises of artificial intelligence, leaders need to deconstruct jobs and processes, redeploy work, and reconstruct new ways of operating.

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Why Four-Day Workweek Experiments Fail (and How to Make Yours Stick) | Benjamin Laker and Chidiebere Ogbonnaya Success in adapting to a four-day workweek lies in execution. These strategies can help smooth the transition.

Rapidly gaining adoption, the four-day workweek is proving to be successful for some organizations and a struggle for others. The difference lies in execution.

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The Surprising Viability of the Four-Day Workweek Researcher and author Juliet B. Schor explains how a shorter workweek can benefit employees and employers alike.

New research shows that organizations adopting shorter workweeks are seeing positive results for both employees and themselves. Here’s how companies are successfully implementing this change.
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A Better Way to Unlock Innovation and Drive Change Taking a strengths-based approach to individual development and team-building can boost innovation and inclusion.

A strengths-based approach to building teams can win employee commitment to change and foster an inclusive, agile culture.

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Building a Data-Driven Culture: Three Mistakes to Avoid | Ganes Kesari Persuading employees to use data to make better decisions requires both top-down leadership and grassroots initiatives.

When people resist changing the way they make decisions, well-intentioned data science projects are doomed. Here’s how to overcome the key challenges.
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Avoid These Five Pitfalls at Your Next Hackathon Hackathons can spur innovation or yield lackluster results. A well-defined challenge and clear goal make the difference.

Defining crystal-clear objectives and planning carefully before you launch an open problem-solving challenge will increase the likelihood of coming away with useful results.
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How Employers Can Stop Failing Parents Investing in child care benefits and workplace flexibility can boost working parents’ productivity and well-being.

By prioritizing child care and workplace flexibility, employers can better address parents’ stress and improve their well-being and productivity.
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The New Rules of Doing Business With China Western policies toward Chinese businesses fall into three categories that require different approaches from executives.

By moving beyond a simplistic view of “decoupling,” executives can better understand and strategically respond to Western policies aimed at Chinese companies.

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Side Chats During Online Meetings: A Minefield for Leaders Side conversations during online meetings can be managed in ways that reinforce a healthy culture.

Leaders can’t escape the reality that people will have side conversations in typed chats during virtual meetings. But whether these chats serve useful purposes or breed mistrust depends on how leaders handle them.

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10 Essential Reads on Innovation These innovation articles offer a concentrated dose of proven wisdom from executives and top academics.

A smart approach to innovation has never been more important. Increase your innovation power — and your team’s — with insights from MIT SMR experts.
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10 Strategies for Leading in Uncertain Times Apply these strategies to steer your company through a volatile and disruptive business environment.

Unpredictability is the new normal — and leadership must adapt and navigate through the chaos. Use these 10 insights from MIT Sloan Management Review experts to rethink strategy, speed, and resilience.
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