As leaders weigh the impact of AI, from productivity gains to job displacement, the encyclical from Pope Leo XIV has escalated the debate beyond technological capability to the fate of humanity. For values-based leaders, this is exactly where the AI discussion needs to focus. In values-based leadership, every strategy and decision requires self-reflection and a balanced perspective to determine both the benefits and impact on people.
In his first encyclical letter, entitled Magnifica Humanitas, Pope Leo XIV acknowledges AI’s value as a tool: “Technology should not be considered, in itself, as a force antagonist to humanity.” However, widespread deployment of AI — which Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei has predicted will cause “unusually painful” disruption in the labor market — requires human discernment, judgment, and oversight. As the pontiff writes, “If technological development advances without a corresponding ethical and social progress, the result may be an increase in means without a growth in humanity: ‘having more’ without ‘being more.’”
This is the call to action for values-based leaders in every organization. The issue is how to embrace AI to foster innovation and generate economic benefits while, even more important, also preventing widespread damage to the workforce as jobs are eliminated. As Amodei wrote earlier this year, “AI isn’t a substitute for specific human jobs but rather a general labor substitute for humans.”
Discernment Is Not Optional
AI is not new. A history of AI credits a workshop proposal at Dartmouth for coining the term in 1955. However, recent advancements in AI — such as processing massive amounts of data, creating content, and making decisions — have both captured imaginations and caused fear over unleashing this technology and its rapidly increasing capabilities. Such a monumental evolution in work cannot be left in the hands of only a few people. Every leader in all organizations must understand the positives and negatives associated with AI and determine how this technology should be deployed.
Pope Leo captured this moral responsibility, pointing out “crucial questions [that] impose themselves on our conscience and can no longer be avoided: Where are we going? Toward what goal do we wish to orient ourselves? What direction should we choose as a people and as a human community?”
His questions are at the heart of five key issues that should be on the AI leadership agenda:
1. Putting More Responsibility on “Responsible AI.”
Pope Leo underscored an “urgent need for a twofold commitment: on the one hand, a deepening of scientific research; on the other, the exercise of moral and spiritual discernment.” The combination of research and discernment speaks to the growing support for “responsible AI” (RAI) to pursue both growth and greater accountability. Responsibility, however, does not occur after the fact. As experts observed, RAI demands verification throughout development and deployment. This commitment must be at the top of the AI leadership agenda.
2. Encouraging More Dialogue On AI and Its Impact.
When Pope Leo presented his encyclical an unlikely partner was not only present but also invited to speak: Christopher Olah, co-founder of Anthropic, the company behind the large language models (LLMs) known as Claude and a suite of AI coding tools. In his remarks, Olah hailed “the start of a long collaboration between those of us who are building this and those who can see what we, from inside, cannot.” What the New York Times called a “symbolic gesture of dialogue between leaders of the spiritual and technological worlds” is a model for the leadership discussion. To develop a balanced perspective, values-based leaders must listen to varied opinions, especially those that differ from their own. On the topic of AI, such balance helps ensure leaders see both the perils and the potential.
3. Putting Governance in the Hands of Humans.
In his encyclical, Pope Leo uses an expression that he said “is close to my heart”—to disarm. Rather than having a military connotation, the pontiff used “disarming” to discredit “the assumption that technical power automatically confers the right to govern.” For leaders, this point emphasizes the importance of governance. Leaders must ensure the short-term and long-term impacts of AI are identified, understood, measured, monitored, and addressed. With greater oversight and discernment, leaders can pursue the desired benefits of AI and avoid the consequences that threaten to cause irreparable harm. As Pope Leo states, “To disarm does not mean rejecting technology but preventing it from dominating humanity.”
4. Promoting Work As a Human Right and Social Good.
Pope Leo XIV released his encyclical on “safeguarding the human person in the time of artificial intelligence” on the 135th anniversary of another groundbreaking encyclical: Pope Leo XIII’s “Rerum Novarum” on labor and capital. Clearly, this was not a coincidence. Rather, the two encyclicals establish a foundation of work as a human right and a societal good that applies even more in the age of AI. Creating “people-first” and “people-centric” organizations today depends on far more than slogans and buzzwords. Rather, the values of leaders and their organizations must emphasize the importance of creating meaningful work and fostering widespread economic development.
5. Preserving Human Dignity Is a Corporate Responsibility.
Appearing more than 100 times in the encyclical, the word “dignity” is clearly a takeaway for leaders. Pope Leo uses dignity in various contexts, from the role of schools in teaching children to the dignity of each person simply by virtue of being human. Importantly, he also views work as enhancing “the dignity of our lives … a requirement of the human condition … to enable each person to live with dignity through his or her own work.” Since companies create jobs and provide workers with the means to develop skills and engage in meaningful work, human dignity becomes a corporate responsibility.
In the opening of his encyclical, addressed not only to the faithful but to all people of goodwill, Pope Leo encourages us to “get our hands dirty on the ‘construction site’ of our time” — namely the future of AI. For leaders, this is a directive that must shape discussions at all levels of their organizations with self-reflection, a balanced perspective, and urgency.