Artificial Intelligence-Driven Leadership and Its Impact on Strategic Decision-Making in Modern Organizations

Abstract

Artificial Intelligence's applications in organizational leadership have become one of the most significant changes in management today. This study aims to explore the contribution of AI-driven leadership (AIDL) to strategic decision-making quality, organizational performance, and achieving competitive advantage in contemporary Indian businesses through an empirical investigation. Primary data was gathered by a quantitative cross-sectional survey of 385 senior and middle level managers from 5 industrial sectors. A 29-item questionnaire was developed and validated for six constructs which was filled out and analyzed with the help of IBM SPSS v26 and using descriptive statistics, reliability analysis, Pearson correlation, multiple linear regression and one way ANOVA. The results for all five null hypotheses were rejected at a 0.05 level of significance. AI-driven leadership was found to significantly and positively influence strategic decision-making (β = .614, R² = .487, p < .001), organizational performance (β = .573, R² = .452, p < .001), and competitive advantage (β = .541, R² = .521, p < .001). The role of ethical governance of AI proved to be a major positive moderator, while significant difference between industry sectors in AIDL perceptions was found. The proposed model is the most accurate of all similar previous studies in terms of predictive accuracy, scale reliability, and construct coverage, adding a solid empirical model for AI-based research and practice related to leadership.