AI as CEO and Executive Leadership: Scoping Review with ☸️SAIMSARA.

Name: SAIMSARA Evidence Object digital::AI_CEO_SS
Creator: SAIMSARA
License: https://saimsara.com/license/

SAIMSARA

doi:10.62487/saimsara72fed8ad

SAIMSARA Journal

Machine-Readable Science • ISSN 3054-3991

AI as CEO and Executive Leadership: Scoping Review with ☸️SAIMSARA.

Digital Health & Biotech

Issue 3, Volume 1, 2026

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DOI: 10.62487/saimsara72fed8ad

Editorial note

• Last update: 2026-05-21 12:31:44

What is this paper about

AI can already imitate parts of executive work — drafting CEO-style messages, supporting decisions, and simulating crisis responses — but the evidence shows that authority, trust, ethics, and accountability still remain deeply human problems. The full SAIMSARA evidence map reveals where AI may genuinely augment leadership, where it becomes symbolic hype, and why the future CEO is more likely to be human-with-AI than AI-alone.

Human-verified editorial review Verified by World ID proof-of-human. This editorial layer was submitted from a SAIMSARA account verified as a unique human.

Video summary generated from this ☸️SAIMSARA evidence map. Full reference-linked paper and evidence JSON are available after purchase.

Abstract: To map and synthesize the evidence on AI as CEO, with emphasis on CEO-like task performance, executive communication, organizational adoption, leadership legitimacy, ethical risk, and the continuing role of human executive characteristics in AI-enabled firms. The review uses 72 references and builds its evidence map from 95 original studies with 278380 total participants/sample observations (topic-deduplicated ΣN). The evidence suggests that AI can credibly execute selected CEO-like functions—analytic decision support, communication drafting, and crisis or strategic simulation—but does not currently support AI as a full substitute for human executive leadership, with legitimacy, accountability, and ethical judgment emerging as recurrent constraints. Decision-support gains such as a 23.7% improvement in decision accuracy coexist with authenticity penalties when AI authorship is perceived, even though AI-mimicked CEO responses were correctly identified only 59% of the time. Observational evidence consistently indicates that human CEO characteristics—IT background, openness, education, and political orientation—moderate whether AI adoption translates into innovation or symbolic compliance. Practically, this supports a role for AI as executive augmentation paired with transparent disclosure and governance safeguards rather than delegated authority. Future work should prioritize standardized CEO-agent benchmarks and prospective governance trials that test human-only, AI-assisted, and AI-delegated executive workflows against legitimacy and accountability endpoints.

Keywords: AI leadership; Artificial intelligence; Chief executive officer; Executive communication; Corporate governance; Digital transformation; AI adoption; Algorithmic management; Leadership authenticity; Strategic decision-making

Review Stats

Final search date and database lock: 2026-05-16 22:34:39 CEST
Plan: Pro (expanded craft tokens; source: Semantic Scholar)
Source: Semantic Scholar
Total Abstracts/Papers: 1251
Downloaded Abstracts/Papers: 1000
Included original and non-original Abstracts/Papers (all): 120
Included original Abstracts/Papers (Vote counting by direction of effect): 95
Reference Index (links used in paper): 72
Total participants/sample observations (topic deduplicated ΣN): 278380

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Reference Index (72)

[1] A new approach to crisis communication in the tourism: Artificial intelligence-based CEO (AI-CEO) — https://doi.org/10.18089/tms.20250302
[2] Disembodying CEO leadership through AI-assisted speechwriting — https://doi.org/10.1177/27538699251374119
[3] Does CEO Overconfidence Facilitate or Hinder Corporate AI Application? Based on Machine Learning, Text Analysis, and Linear Regression: CEO overconfidence and corporate AI application — https://doi.org/10.1145/3795154.3795416
[4] CEO AI orientation, human resources and green innovation: an attention-based view — https://doi.org/10.1108/k-04-2024-0964
[5] Does symbolic AI-related disclosure influence CEO promotion? Evidence from state-owned enterprises in China — https://doi.org/10.1080/00036846.2024.2412257
[6] The Wade Test: Generative AI and CEO Communication — https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4991814
[7] Facilitation or inhibition? Impact of CEO’s financial background on industrial AI transformation of manufacturing companies — https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1126801
[8] Predicting corporate management performance using AI: Incorporating CEO strategy insights from sustainable management reports — https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0347140

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