Hachette’s CEO says AI shortcuts are creating a ‘worse C-suite’

Some executives have always leaned on assistants to sort the flood. What’s changed is that the assistant now lives in a chatbot. Leaders in the U.S. and U.K. are using AI to summarize documents, draft emails, and even prepare for meetings, according to a survey from General Assembly and Ezra. Microsoft’s Ryan Roslansky says he uses AI on almost every high-stakes email, and Satya Nadella uses AI agents to digest his inbox. Mark Zuckerberg is also reportedly building an AI clone of himself that can answer staff questions in his tone and mannerisms.

David Shelley, who runs Hachette, thinks that convenience comes with a cost. He says there is a growing gap between how leaders sound in writing and how they actually are in real life. That matters, he argues, because employees want CEOs who can build trust, not just churn out polished notes. In Edelman’s 2026 Trust Barometer, 73% of employees said CEOs have an obligation to build trust and bridge divides, but only 44% said leaders were doing it well.

Shelley is not against help. He just does not want the human part stripped out. He says being able to write a good email yourself is important, and he worries that relying on AI and other people to communicate dulls a leader’s brain. Natalie Sutton, a communications consultant and executive coach, puts it more sharply: “Fluency is becoming cheap. Sincerity is becoming scarce.” Her view is that a message that clearly sounds like the CEO will beat a perfect one that could have come from anyone.

The bigger worry is cognitive offloading, the idea that if AI keeps doing the first draft, people stop doing the thinking. Shelley points to research linking heavy AI use with weaker critical thinking, including a 2025 MIT Media Lab study in which people who wrote essays with ChatGPT showed the weakest brain engagement and many could not quote from what they had just written. He also thinks the shortcut instinct is bleeding into reading habits, which he sees as part of a broader decline in the skills leaders need to follow complex arguments, weigh competing views, and build a point of view. His blunt verdict: lose curiosity and empathy, and you get a worse C-suite.