Agency in the Age of AI

I woke up at 6am to be at the Gloo classroom by 7am. Not because I had to.But because I knew I was stepping into something that would challenge how I think- This session was part of the #4AI cohort, run by Bay Area Center for Faith, Work & Tech cofounder Paul Taylor

One word stayed with me all day: #Agency.

Later that same week, I was in a coaching session with a startup founder, he told me: “AI is helping me move faster. I don’t get stuck anymore.” We kept talking. What surfaced wasn’t speed. It was avoidance. He had been using AI to draft messages, decisions, even feedback— especially the hard conversations he didn’t want to have. On the surface: #efficiency.

Underneath: #disengagement from #responsibility.

This is where the definition of agency hit me: #Agency is the exercise of genuine authority within given limits.

Not doing more. Not moving faster. But: Are you still willing to carry what is yours to carry?

In #leadership, I see this tension everywhere now. AI extends our capability. But it also quietly tempts us to step out of the parts that are hard, human, and costly. And that’s where agency begins to break. The framework we studied names it very clearly:

- Authority → Servitude

You build tools to serve you. Eventually, you start serving them—your attention, your habits, your decisions shaped by the system.

- Consequence → Domination

You push for outcomes, but stop asking who carries the cost. Speed increases. Awareness decreases.

- Sabbath → Injustice

Efficiency improves—for some. But somewhere else, pressure accumulates. Someone pays for the system you optimized.

- Accountability → Evasion

“The AI suggested it.” “The system decided.”

#Leadership slowly disconnects from #ownership.

This is why one idea from the session stayed with me: Technology doesn’t remove limits. It #redistributes them. If something feels #frictionless,look again. Someone is carrying that friction. Or you are—just later.

Another uncomfortable truth: Agency requires friction. Not unnecessary struggle. But the kind of resistance that forces you to think, decide, show up, and engage. The conversation you don’t want to have. The decision you can’t outsource. The tension you have to sit through. Remove all of that— and you don’t become a better leader. You become a more efficient avoider.

In my coaching work, this is becoming a new pattern: Leaders are not losing capability. They are slowly losing contact with responsibility. And it doesn’t look dramatic. It looks like:

- Cleaner outputs

- Faster responses

- Fewer difficult moments

But also:

- Less ownership presence

- Less real leadership

The question is not whether AI is powerful. The question is—are you becoming sharper, or just more comfortable?

Because leadership is not about removing all friction. It’s about knowing: which friction is actually shaping you into the leader you are becoming—and choosing not to escape it.

Paul TaylorDenise YohnJohn LiuShenghua (Seth)L.Windy Sampson,MBAHanya Hu