11th August 2026
The continual rise of AI automation and workplace assistants is fundamentally transforming the way work gets done. In many leaders, this surfaces a concerning doubt: Could my role soon to be performed by a bot?
The short answer, argues Dr. Eve Poole OBE, Associate Faculty at Hult International Business School, is no. While AI is on track to supercharge most logic-based work, there is a world of human-centered skills that are not built into any AI code, but are built into the coding of every human.
Indeed, such is the “human junk code” identified by Dr. Poole that it would be impossible to program as it is so closely linked to the visceral experience of ‘humanness’.
So, what constitutes this “human junk code”, why is it important, and why have we devalued it for so long?
"We've never had a competitor like AI. We've never had someone who can do an awful lot of the stuff we thought was ours and special and precious. So we need to be rethinking what it means to be human, and trying to get better at being human rather than just competing with AI."
De-risking the human design
Dr. Poole asserts that the traits that have kept humans alive for thousands of years are the very same traits that make great leaders. This is because in both cases, it comes down to a single question: How does a person endowed with free will make the best decisions for the survival and well-being of their group?
Dr. Poole explains,
The junk code is the key to your leadership. Leadership, by definition, is about decision-making. That’s why people are following you, because you are setting a direction. You draw on this risk mitigation in your junk code because you’re trying not to make terrible decisions.
In other words, humans have developed this “junk code” to reduce the risk of decision-making in an uncertain world. Here are the traits that make it work:
Emotions. This is what keeps you connected to your community and gives you a reason to protect them. It makes us care enough to start making decisions in the first place.
Intuition. The gut feeling that allows you to make snap decisions when you are ‘data poor’.
Uncertainty. The propensity for living with paradox, evolved to avoid making decisions too early when risk is high.
Conscience. The mechanism of improving your moral code so that you can make better decisions over time.
Meaning-making & Storytelling. How you communicate purpose, giving those you lead the motivation to take decisions that drive the mission forward every day.
This framework champions the messy, unpredictable side of humans, recognizing the value of communal lived experience. This sensitivity of one human to one another cannot be written in code, and therefore is the area where human leaders will continue to have the edge over AI.
Harnessing your “junk code” as a leader
Without being aware of it, leaders benefit from their “junk code” on a daily basis; it is the blueprint for the behaviors that nurture relationships, formulate a vision, and execute decisions.
Successful communication, for example, is built on emotional connection, gut feeling (particularly trust), and storytelling. This is why, when AI is used to ‘perfect’ communication, the machine risks abandoning the human dimension of communication – connection. It goes without saying that this risk is magnified at the scale of an organization. Other corporate quirks, such as mentoring, feedback, or a company’s mission and vision statements, are equally driven by our unusual programming (uncertainty, conscience, and meaning-making, respectively). As Dr. Poole puts it,
What’s really useful about “junk code” is that it teaches you what it means to be human. And while leadership remains the leading of other people, “junk code” is all you need.
The key challenge is for leaders to learn to trust their “junk code” which is too often valued below logic and reason. Listening to their ‘sixth sense’, cultivating emotional intelligence, using uncertainty as a tool for exploration and learning. The list goes on. For as we dive deeper into a working world powered by AI, employees will need humanity in their leaders to give them purpose, unity, and connection.
About
Dr. Eve Poole OBE, Associate Faculty at Hult International Business School
Dr Eve Poole OBE is a Hult Impact Leadership Lab Visiting Fellow. She has a BA from Durham, an MBA from Edinburgh, and a PhD from Cambridge. Following careers in the charity sector and at Deloitte Consulting, she taught Leadership at Ashridge for 10 years.
She is the author of several books, including Leadersmithing and Robot Souls. She has held a variety of senior leadership roles, including CEO of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and the Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland, and Chairman of Gordonstoun. She was Third Church Estates Commissioner for England from 2018-2021 and is now Executive Chair of the Woodard Corporation. She was awarded an OBE in the 2023 New Year Honours List for services to education and gender equality.
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