Do Leaders Really Need to Know How AI Works?

This article is part of an interview with Alexander Berger, chief operations officer at Bolt.new. This interview was conducted for Tech.co’s AI newsletter, The AI Strat. For more interviews with AI experts on the latest trending topics, subscribe to the newsletter. 

There’s a lot on your plate as a business leader. When it comes to AI, the temptation might be to sign off on a ChatGPT or Claude subscription, alert your chief technology officer, and call it a day. You might be wondering, do I need to know how to use these tools myself?

Alexander Berger, chief operations officer at Bolt.new, believes this is a valid question to ask. Especially if you’re not the person who’s going to get hands-on with these tools every day, he said, during an interview with Tech.co.

However, he believes leaders should develop what he calls the right “mental models” when their company adopts AI, as they could be missing out on key benefits. Likewise, if businesses are looking to reimagine themselves completely with AI, then leader knowledge becomes vital.

Business Leaders Should Learn Some AI, Expert Says

As a business leader, you might believe putting AI in the hands of your tech team is enough. And yes, while your tech experts will have the best AI knowledge, that doesn’t mean leaders shouldn’t interact with the technology themselves.

Alexander Berger, chief operations officer at Bolt.new, believes leaders should take a different approach. “I strongly believe that if you want to be a leader in an organization that’s very AI-focused, you can benefit immensely by getting into the tools and prompting yourself.”

“Not necessarily because you’re going to be the one doing the work or squeezing the value out of the tools,” Berger adds. “But because developing the mental models around what is even possible to do with the tools and how you work with them is very hard without actually going and using the tool yourself.”

Building the ‘Mental Models’ Around AI Use

Bolt.new is a vibe coding tool, which allows users to build websites by prompting AI with natural language. Berger tells me he has built websites since he was a teenager, so when he joined Bolt, he wasn’t completely in the dark about how it all worked. He had, as he calls it, the right “mental models.”

The first time Berger tried to build something agentic was Valentine’s Day weekend of this year. “It wasn’t until I actually built that, that I really understood what an agent is, and how to construct it.”

You can read about it and get the general gist, Berger explains, but you won’t develop that mental model by just observing. You need to get stuck in. “Until I had those mental models, it was shocking to me how much I really didn’t understand.”

Some studies have suggested AI expertise is concentrated. Companies have what is called “AI champions,” or, people that know AI best. These individuals are usually where wider AI integration starts, and many experts suggest empowering those that know AI leads to business success.

According to Berger, being able to use AI tools as a leader makes it easier to know who to uplift. You get the ability to “actually identify” those AI champions, “and I think that’s really important because you should elevate those people in the organization.”

Backing the wrong people could lead to bad outcomes, Berger adds. They’ll leak data, emails get sent to the wrong client, agents go off the rails, and so on.

Similarly, another benefit of knowing these tools as a leader is being able to get the maximum out of them. “Just understanding these tools, even if you’re not the best person on your team skill-wise, it will give you the ability to ask your team for things like this operational platform tool, that does XYZ.”

“You’ll have enough knowledge about what’s possible with the tools to provide some direction,” Berger says. Without this leadership direction, AI use becomes much more trivial.

Should All Leaders Know How to Use AI?

Learning a new tool like AI takes time. Though Berger recommends leaders get to grips with AI, he admits in some cases, it might not be necessary. If, for example, you’re only looking to build a website with Wix’s AI builder, then you don’t need to get too deep on how that works.

If, however, you want to build more advanced tools, then learning AI becomes more important.

“If you want to build more complex tools… you probably, as a leader, are going to need to build some mental models to even be able to work with your team and understand what’s possible.” – Alexander Berger, chief operations officer at Bolt.new

Some businesses are reimagining entire processes with AI, by understanding new ways to automate tasks and enhance productivity. To do this in the most effective way, direction is needed, and this is where leadership knowledge becomes especially important. Otherwise, you’ll end up with a new tool, and nowhere to put it.

Although, there is evidence to suggest that leaders themselves feel they haven’t received enough AI training. This could lead to companies not using AI to its full potential, or worse, failing to keep themselves and their data safe. All the more reason for leaders learn as much as possible.