Your role
AI skills for leaders
Leaders use AI in two ways. They use it in their own work: board updates, strategy memos, and preparing for difficult conversations. They also judge work their teams produced with AI, and they set the rules for how the team uses it. Both depend on the same skills.
The stakes in leadership work differ from most roles. A wrong figure in a board update damages trust with directors. A biased performance review harms a person. A loose team policy can put employee or customer data in the wrong tool. AI does not change who is accountable for any of this.
This guide breaks the work into the six skills Emeri measures. Each skill has its own page. It covers tasks from management and executive work, what the skill looks like at each band from E1 to E4, the mistakes leaders make most often, and a worked example.
- 1
See where you stand. A free check of the six skills, about fifteen minutes.
- 2
Build the skills. Free guides and courses that fit leadership work.
- 3
Prove it. One examined sitting, then a grade anyone can verify.
Where AI shows up in the work
- Writing for boards and investors
- Quarterly board updates, investor letters, and strategy memos. AI helps with structure and drafting. Every number and every commitment in the document still belongs to the leader who signs it.
- Reading before a decision
- Summarizing long reports, consultant decks, and due diligence files before a meeting. The risk is a summary that drops the one caveat that should change the decision.
- People work
- Preparing for hard conversations, drafting performance feedback, and writing hiring rubrics. AI can improve structure and tone. It cannot know the person, and it can repeat bias found in its inputs.
- Setting the team’s practice
- Writing a team AI policy, deciding which tools handle which data, and reviewing AI-produced analysis from direct reports. The team copies what its leader does, not only what the policy says.
Step 1
See where you stand
The free check grades all six skills in about fifteen minutes, and shows which to work on first. AI use is encouraged. No account is needed, and nobody sees the grade but you.
Want to know more first? Read about the check.
Step 2
Build the skills
Start with the skill your check showed as weakest. Every guide, course and template here is free.
The six skills, for leaders
Each guide shows what the skill looks like for leaders at every band from E1 to E4.
Asking well
Turning a decision, a memo, or a difficult conversation into a request with a reader, a purpose, and limits.
Read the guide →Giving good context
Supplying the strategy, history, and verified facts that the model cannot know about your organization.
Read the guide →Checking the work
Testing summaries, figures, and team analysis before they shape a decision or reach a board.
Read the guide →Putting it together
Turning one-off AI use into repeatable steps for board reporting, decision preparation, and review cycles.
Read the guide →Getting real work done
Taking work from AI draft to a finished board paper, decision, or piece of feedback that holds up.
Read the guide →Keeping it safe
Protecting financials and employee data, keeping people decisions fair, and setting the team’s rules.
Read the guide →Courses that fit leadership work
Each course is written for every job. Here is why each one fits yours.
- Free · 7 lessons
Presentations people care about
For board updates and decisions, lead with the answer; save a story arc for a change your team must adopt.
Start the course → - Free · 8 lessons
Automate the work you dread
Have a morning briefing or meeting follow-ups arrive as drafts, and nothing goes out until you send it.
Start the course →
Templates for leadership work
Fill-in forms you can copy, each with a filled example.
AI context brief template
A one-page project background you write once and paste at the start of each conversation.
Open the template →Team AI-use policy outline
An outline a manager can fill in to set clear AI rules for one team.
Open the template →AI use disclosure template
A form for a short, plain statement of how AI was used in a piece of work.
Open the template →Step 3
Prove it
When you are ready, the certification examines the same six skills in one sitting. AI is allowed, as it is in the check. Pass, and your grade gets a public page that anyone can use to verify it. One retake is included if your first sitting falls below the bar.
Get certified — $129Questions
What AI skills do leaders need?
The six skills Emeri measures apply to leaders as to everyone else: asking well, giving good context, checking the work, putting it together into workflows, getting real work done, and keeping it safe. For leaders, checking the work and keeping it safe carry the most weight. Leaders judge AI-produced analysis from their teams, handle sensitive data, and set the rules the team follows.
Do leaders need hands-on AI skills?
Emeri does not make predictions about jobs or careers. What we can say is that leaders who use AI in their own work are better placed to judge their team’s AI-produced work and to write a policy people can follow. Delegating the tools does not delegate the judgment. Accountability for decisions, figures, and fairness stays with the leader.
How can I tell what level my AI skills are at?
Start with the band descriptions on each skill page. Compare them with how you handled your last board update, decision memo, or review cycle. For a measured result, take the free Emeri check. It takes about fifteen minutes and returns an indicative band across all six skills.
Are these example tasks from the Emeri exam?
No. We wrote the tasks on this page to illustrate leadership work, and none of them appear on the exam. The certification has its own scenarios, graded against the same six skills.
Hiring for this role? The AI interview questions for leadership candidates explain what a strong answer and a weak answer show for each skill.
Start with step 1
The free check takes about fifteen minutes. Your result shows your strongest and weakest skills, so you know which guides to read first.