The Leadership Role AI Is Creating (and Why Most Leaders Aren’t Ready for It)

Mik Kersten's book 'Output to Outcome' argues that AI is fundamentally reshaping the technology leadership role, not just the teams beneath it. He introduces the concept of the 'outcome manager' — a hybrid product/engineering leader accountable for both human and autonomous value streams. Using TUI Group's CIO as a case study, Kersten illustrates how effective AI-era leaders must stay directly connected to the Outcome Loop: running experiments, directing agents, and maintaining technical fluency. As autonomous agents take on more output work, accountability doesn't disappear — it moves up to the human leader who owns that value stream. Leaders are advised to stretch beyond their comfort zones, with technical leaders moving toward strategy and business leaders engaging hands-on with agentic tools.