It was revealed this week that West Midlands Police Chief Constable, Craig Guildford, relied on AI-generated analysis to justify blocking Israeli football fans from attending a match against Aston Villa. We have now discovered that the AI had fabricated claims of violence at a West Ham fixture involving the same supporters that the Chief Constable has cited as part of his rationale for his decisions. This should give us all pause for thought. It is beyond embarrassing.
AI, impressive as it is, is not infallible. It does not “know”; it predicts. And in doing so, it can fabricate plausible-sounding “evidence” to support whatever case it has been prompted to make. We have already seen instances where AI systems have invented court cases, created fictitious precedents, or constructed false data trails that appear credible on the surface but are entirely untrue.
It’s crucial that we know and understand this, not only for policing, law, or journalism, but for leadership.
Because as AI is becoming increasingly embedded into our working lives, there is a growing risk that managers outsource not only decisions, but judgement; not only analysis, but understanding; and not only data processing, but people management itself. However people are not algorithms.
Predictions across the HR and leadership landscape suggest that during 2026, we will see a greater shift towards Human-Centred leadership. This approach places people - employees, customers and stakeholders - at the core of leadership decisions and organisational design.
Rather than viewing individuals purely through the lens of their roles, outputs or KPIs, human-centred leadership recognises people as whole human beings; with emotions, motivations, personal circumstances and lived experience. It understands that potential does not sit neatly in job descriptions, and that performance is shaped as much by trust, psychological safety and meaning as it is by targets and incentives.
Human-centred leadership prioritises empathy, builds trust, enables autonomy, and gives people the space to grow and thrive. The result is not “soft” leadership. Rather it is stronger engagement, improved resilience, greater adaptability and more sustainable performance.
It is sometimes too easy, particularly in large or complex organisations, for leaders to manage from a distance. The further a manager is from the people “at the coalface”, the greater the risk that they see only numbers, not people; outputs, not effort; performance metrics, not human realities.
That distance can be corrosive.
When employees feel unseen, unheard or undervalued, disengagement follows. Disengagement leads to disloyalty, higher attrition, declining morale and falling productivity. Turnover increases, recruitment costs rise, training spend escalates, and organisational knowledge leaks out of the business. What initially looks like efficiency quickly becomes expensive.
And no AI dashboard will tell you how your people feel; only how they behave once it is already too late.
To prevent this drift away from the human, managers require intentional development; not in systems, but in skills. Communication skills, including understanding that team members will have different communication styles and what these are. Building authentic relationships with appropriate empathy and having meaningful conversations. And leading through trust rather than control.
These are not optional extras. They are core leadership capabilities, and they are the underlying themes across many of the Leadership and Management Training courses that we offer at HR Champions.
All of our programmes are designed to help managers get the very best out of their teams by strengthening human-centred leadership capability, equipping leaders to balance performance with empathy, structure with flexibility, and technology with humanity.
AI will continue to transform the workplace. That is inevitable. But it must never replace the human connection at the heart of leadership.
If you want your organisation, and your people, to thrive throughout 2026 and beyond, now is the time to invest in leadership that sees people not as resources to be optimised, but as humans to be led.
Get in touch with HR Champions to discuss how our Leadership and Management Training can support you and your teams to grow, adapt and succeed human-first, not machine-managed. Call us on 01452 331331, or complete the contact form.
