AI as Co-Leader: Effects of Human Consideration and AI Structure Behaviors on Leadership Effectiveness and Neural Activation

With rapid technological advancements, AI has emerged as a potential performer of some leadership functions, supplementing or even substituting certain human leadership. The collaborative leadership dynamics between humans and AI remain underexplored. This study investigated the effects of human consideration (high versus low) and AI structure (high versus low) behaviors on task performance, subjective experiences, and neural activation in a human–AI co-lead scenario. A total of 80 participants engaged in quality inspection tasks that were co-led by human and AI leaders, with 20 participants randomly allocated to each behavior combination. The results revealed that high AI structure was associated with increased job-related satisfaction, employee engagement, and leader trust, while low AI structure slightly facilitated task completion speed (about 6.80%). High human consideration increased the trust in and satisfaction with the human leader. Overall, the combination of high consideration in the human leader and high structure in the AI leader enhanced leadership effectiveness and diversification of work methods (with 30% of participants choosing inspection methods other than AI suggestions). Low-structure AI leader behavior led to increased neural activation during the human-leading process in the prefrontal cortex, which was associated with increased attention, motivation, and semantic processing.