Leadership × AI

3 Skills Separating AI Leaders from Everyone Else in 2026

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Shanee Moret
• 14 min read
Watch: 3 Skills Separating AI Leaders from Everyone Else in 2026
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JG
Dr. Julie Gurner
Performance coach to the top 0.01%. Author of the Ultra Successful newsletter on Substack.

TL;DR — What You'll Learn

  • The top 1% aren't smarter about AI — they're experimenting while everyone else is still debating whether to start.
  • Three skills separate leaders who will thrive from those who won't: self-teaching, pushing learning onto your team, and staying adaptable.
  • The biggest threat isn't AI replacing you — it's avoidance. Denial and overwhelm are the real career killers in 2026.
Who this is for: Business owners, executives, and professionals who know AI matters but haven't carved out time to learn it yet — and leaders who need to get their teams onboard before the window closes.

In a world where AI is advancing faster than most people can track, the gap between those who are experimenting and those who are watching from the sidelines is widening every day. I sat down with Dr. Julie Gurner — a performance coach who works with executives leading billion-dollar companies — to talk about what separates the top 1% in how they think about AI.

The Biggest Difference: Experimentation

The top operators aren't waiting for permission or for perfect understanding. They're spending evenings and weekends playing around with AI tools, building things, and testing what's possible.

"The biggest thing that I see with those top 1% operators is experimentation. They are learning about AI. They are self-teaching. They're spending their weekends or evenings playing around with it, seeing what they can do."
— Dr. Julie Gurner

This isn't about becoming a technical expert. It's about developing fluency. The leaders who will thrive understand that you can't outsource understanding of a technology this transformative.

"One of the decisions that I've personally made in the last 24 months was I left a lot of short term money on the table because I needed to reserve time to learn AI and to then teach it to my clients and to do educational videos about it because I had this gut instinct that it was the right thing to do, not just for my business personally, but to help other people learn."
— Shanee Moret

The Three Skills for 2026

When I asked Dr. Gurner what skills people should double down on to prepare for uncertainty, she came back to one word: preparedness.

Skill 1

Be autodidactic. Time to be a beginner again. Start playing around with AI tools and self-teaching, even if you've had deep expertise in your field for decades.

Skill 2

Push learning onto your team. If you're a leader, create space and incentives for your people to experiment. Reward trying and failing. Pay for subscriptions and boot camps. Model it yourself.

Skill 3

Stay adaptable. Don't dig into one model or one way of doing things. Read the landscape. Be flexible. Take the next step even when you can't see the whole path.

The Danger of Avoidance

Dr. Gurner identified two dangerous mindsets she sees people adopt when confronted with AI:

"You better understand it yourself if you're a leader. I have people leading billion-dollar companies who are spending time in the evenings playing around with AI. That's why they lead billion-dollar companies."
— Dr. Julie Gurner

What CEOs Are Getting Wrong

One of the most powerful points in our conversation was about the elephant in the room that most leaders refuse to address: their team's anxiety about AI.

Employees are worried about their jobs. They're worried about relevance. And if leadership isn't talking about it, people fill the silence with worst-case scenarios.

"The CEO not talking about it creates uncertainty. The remedy for uncertainty is preparedness. If you're able to put that into a memo so that your employees know — here's how we feel about AI, where we use it and where we do not — it also can be a statement of how you look at the company into the future."
— Dr. Julie Gurner

The Real Power: Clarity + AI

"I created a little software thing that will help people optimize their LinkedIn profile. The only reason I know how to do that is because I sat across from like 2,000 people over the last five years doing it, and I know that oh no, they wouldn't want it to look like this, or oh, they like this. So I know my audience, I know what experience would be best for them."
— Shanee Moret

One of the most practical insights from our conversation: AI doesn't replace how you think. It brings how you think to life.

Dr. Gurner shared an example of a client who was about to subscribe to a piece of software that cost hundreds of thousands of dollars per year. Instead, he spent a weekend building a custom version with AI tools. It was more tailored, more efficient, and easier for his team to use than the out-of-the-box solution.

"AI doesn't have to take away how you think. It can actually bring how you think to life in a completely new way. As long as you are directing the tool and directing the AI, it's not taking from the human experience — it's enhancing us."
— Dr. Julie Gurner

The Identity Crisis Nobody's Talking About

For people whose identity is tied to their craft — coders, designers, writers — AI creates a genuine existential question. Someone who spent 15 years perfecting their skills now watches AI do it in minutes.

Dr. Gurner's perspective: your expertise isn't obsolete. It's applied differently.

"Your craft may not be putting ingredients in the pie, but it doesn't mean that you don't understand the things that create the perfect pie. You are still going to be relied on to create the perfect pie. You're now just gonna be able to create more of them."
— Dr. Julie Gurner

Don't Be Blockbuster

The most dangerous position right now is comfort. If your business is doing well today, the temptation is to stay the course. But the landscape is shifting underneath you.

"I specifically remember this one person — I was hosting a LinkedIn audio room on ChatGPT. He gets to the stage and he's like, oh, I have 25 years in Google. This is just another phase. This is just another fad. I was like, you're wrong. And I challenged him on the stage. That was around the point where the voice first came out. Within 30 seconds, almost everyone in the class forgot I was there and was talking to ChatGPT. From that moment I was like, oh, this is something for real."
— Shanee Moret

The Question Every Leader Should Ask

"What would V2 of this company look like? In your wildest dreams, what could we do? What would be amazing, even if you don't think we can do it? Challenge people — because we may have the tools to make that happen."

How Great CEOs Get Buy-In

  1. They model it. They show up to all-hands with tools they built over the weekend, warts and all.
  2. They reward it. One leader offered 10% of any efficiency savings as a bonus. People got creative fast.
  3. They address the elephants. They proactively talk about job security, AI's role, and where the company is headed.
  4. They highlight wins. When someone on the team builds something cool, they give it a shout-out company-wide.
"You get what you incentivize and what you reward. Making sure all the incentives really line up for people."
— Dr. Julie Gurner

Conclusion

Nobody knows exactly what's coming. But the more prepared you are, the better your chances — not just for you, but for your team, your family, and everyone looking for the strongest swimmer when everyone gets thrown in the ocean.

"If I'm going to go into a war, if I'm going to go into a new territory that's never been seen before, I want to know at least a little bit of what's coming and be as prepared as possible. If I have to be thrown in the ocean, I want to learn how to swim. I want to learn how to turn wood into a raft because I'm giving myself the best chance of success, not just for myself, but the people that I care about. It became non-optional for me. I literally made space for hours a day to learn."
— Shanee Moret

The opportunity of a lifetime is right now, in 2026, to get ahead of this personally and professionally. Be the person who brings that knowledge back. Follow the right people. And start experimenting.

Pitfalls to Avoid

⚠

Waiting for the "right" tool to learn. There is no perfect starting point. The leaders Dr. Gurner coaches started by playing around — not by taking a course or reading a whitepaper. Pick any AI tool and start building something this week.

⚠

Delegating AI understanding to someone else. If you're a leader, you cannot hand this off to a "Head of AI" and check the box. The executives running billion-dollar companies are spending their own evenings learning it. You need to understand it yourself.

⚠

Ignoring your team's anxiety. Silence from leadership about AI creates worst-case-scenario thinking. Not addressing job security, changing roles, and where AI fits is a morale killer and a retention risk.

⚠

Treating AI like a fad. The "25 years in Google, this is just another phase" mindset is the Blockbuster mentality. By the time you realize it's real, the people who started experimenting two years ago are already miles ahead.

Your Action Plan — Start This Week

1

Block 30 minutes today to experiment. Open ChatGPT, Claude, or any AI tool. Give it a real business problem you're facing. Don't judge the output — just start building the muscle.

2

Write your company's AI position memo. Even if it's three paragraphs. Where do you use AI? Where don't you? What's your stance on AI and jobs? Send it to your team this week.

3

Identify one expensive tool or process AI could replace. Dr. Gurner's client was about to spend hundreds of thousands on software. He built a custom version in a weekend. What's your version of that?

4

Create an incentive for your team to experiment. Offer a percentage of efficiency savings as a bonus. Publicly celebrate anyone who builds something with AI. Make it safe to try and fail.

5

Ask your team the V2 question. "In your wildest dreams, what would Version 2 of this company look like?" You may already have the tools to build it.

Frequently Asked Questions

I'm not technical. Can I still learn AI?
Yes. Dr. Gurner's clients are CEOs and executives, not engineers. The point isn't to code — it's to understand the tools well enough to direct them. Think of it like driving a car: you don't need to build the engine.
How much time do I actually need to spend learning?
Start with 30 minutes a day. Shanee made the decision to carve out hours daily because she saw how critical it was. But even a weekend of dedicated experimentation can shift your perspective entirely.
Will AI actually replace my job?
AI is replacing tasks and functions, not necessarily entire roles — yet. But leaders who refuse to engage with it will find their roles shrinking. As Dr. Gurner put it, your expertise isn't obsolete, it's applied differently.
What if my team resists adopting AI?
Resistance usually comes from fear, not stubbornness. Address the anxiety directly. Write that AI memo. Model experimentation yourself. Incentivize trying. When people see leadership engaged and their jobs aren't disappearing, they open up.
What's the single most important thing I can do right now?
Stop watching from the sidelines. Pick one AI tool, give it a real problem from your business, and spend 30 minutes seeing what it can do. The gap between experimenters and observers is widening every day.

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