The Top 10 MIT SMR Articles of 2025

News

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2. UAE Targets 60 Trillion AI Tokens To Become 'Factory of Intelligence'

3. AI Godfather Geoffrey Hinton Says Future Jobs Won’t Come Close to Those Lost

4. 116M EVs To Be On Road by 2026, Predicts Gartner

5. AI Companies Falling Short of Global Safety Standards, Study Finds

6. Tally Launches New Campaign for Saudi MSMEs Aligned with Vision 2030

In our conversations with leaders this year, we have heard a lot of the above sentiment. The uncertainty of the world right now, and the emotions that we are left with in uncertainty’s wake, are being felt by new and veteran leaders alike.

Much of today’s uncertainty revolves around artificial intelligence — and the decisions around AI just keep coming at leaders. How much tech debt will AI coding tools saddle your organization with? What kind of leadership skill set do you and your people really need in the AI age? Can AI really give you a sustainable competitive edge over your rivals?

These questions inform three of the articles on this year’s MIT SMR top 10 list. The most widely read AI article of all, “Philosophy Eats AI,” by David Kiron and Michael Schrage, poses the weighty question of whether leaders are making AI decisions that reflect their organization’s philosophies — or simply defaulting to the philosophies built into the large language models and generative AI tools that they’re using. (Hint: The default choice has its drawbacks.)

Along with AI angst, leaders are wrangling with very human and perennial challenges involving culture and people management. These include the challenges of running team meetings so as to encourage smart group decisions and not fake consensus, as Phillip G. Clampitt and Alida Al-Saadi detail in our No. 5 story.

One interesting note: Two non-AI topics, running better meetings and managing hybrid work teams, made the top 10 lists in both 2024 and 2025. That shows that leaders keenly want to make things better on those two fronts, and it’s still particularly hard leadership work.

As 2025 ends and 2026 approaches, we hope you’ll continue to turn to MIT SMR as we work to help you solve hard problems with novel, evidence-based lessons from experts, academics, and innovative practitioners from around the world. Start smart in the new year with this roundup of 2025’s most popular articles.

1. Philosophy Eats AI

As artificial intelligence and large language models evolve, leaders need to examine the philosophical foundations of how cognitive technologies are trained. Philosophy offers important perspectives on the goals of AI models, the definition of knowledge, and AI’s representations of reality. All of these perspectives shape how AI creates business value, and companies that seek business value from technology investments must look more deeply at their philosophical frameworks.

Read the full article “Philosophy Eats AI,” by Michael Schrage and David Kiron.

2. The Hidden Costs of Coding With Generative AI

Generative AI tools can make developers up to 55% more productive, but rapid deployment creates dangerous technical debt. In brownfield environments with legacy systems, AI-generated code compounds existing problems when it’s deployed by inexperienced developers. To avoid costly system failures, organizations must establish clear guidelines, make technical debt management a priority, and train developers to use AI responsibly.

Read the full article “The Hidden Costs of Coding With Generative AI,” by Edward Anderson, Geoffrey Parker, and Burcu Tan.

3. Five Traits of Leaders Who Excel at Decision-Making

When we’re forced to make a decision in the heat of uncertainty, many of us tend toward one of two extremes: a hasty rush to action or a complete avoidance of it. A study the author conducted with HSBC looked at what traits stood out among business leaders who effectively made decisions at their biggest personal and professional moments. The research found that viewing change positively, framing unexpected challenges as opportunities, and embracing grounded optimism were key.

Read the full article “Five Traits of Leaders Who Excel at Decision-Making,” by David Tuckett.

4. Five Trends in AI and Data Science for 2025

Surveys revealed five big AI trends for 2025: a need to grapple with the promise and hype around agentic AI; the push to measure results from generative AI experiments; an emerging clearer vision of what a data-driven culture really means; a renewed focus on unstructured data; and a continued struggle over which C-suite role will oversee data and AI responsibilities.

Read the full article “Five Trends in AI and Data Science for 2025,” by Thomas H. Davenport and Randy Bean.

5. Three Meeting Red Flags That Skilled Leaders Notice

Leaders often overlook destructive meeting dynamics that can undermine team success. Effective meeting leaders balance three crucial roles — shaper, participant, and observer — while watching for three red flags: fake attentiveness, marginalized voices, and faux consensus. Learn practical tactics to address these issues, starting with streamlining agendas and engaging with existing relational networks.

Read the full article “Three Meeting Red Flags That Skilled Leaders Notice,” by Phillip G. Clampitt and Alida Al-Saadi.

6. Why AI Demands a New Breed of Leaders

Artificial intelligence is changing how humans and machines work together. But most organizations still focus on the technical aspects of AI implementation because their leadership structure does too. Companies need a new role, the chief innovation and transformation officer, to manage the profound cultural and organizational changes AI adoption brings. Here’s why forward-thinking organizations already have or plan to hire such leaders.

Read the full article “Why AI Demands a New Breed of Leaders,” by Faisal Hoque, Thomas H. Davenport, and Erik Nelson

7. How I Built a Personal Board of Directors With GenAI

Using generative AI tools, leaders can construct a virtual, personal board of directors made up of personas modeled after current and historic thinkers and strategists. Author Vipin Gupta has made his MVP Board based on leaders like Steve Jobs, Indra Nooyi, and Nelson Mandela. Each virtual adviser offers distinct perspectives on strategy, innovation, ethics, and operations questions. Combined with your human relationships, your own virtual board can form a hybrid team of advisers.

Read the full article “How I Built a Personal Board of Directors With GenAI,” by Vipin Gupta.

8. Why AI Will Not Provide Sustainable Competitive Advantage

Artificial intelligence does not change anything about the fundamental nature of sustained competitive advantage when its use is pervasive. Once AI is ubiquitous, it will transform economies and lift markets as a whole, but it will not uniquely benefit any single company. Businesses seeking to gain an innovation edge over rivals will need to focus their efforts on cultivating creativity among their employees.

Read the full article “Why AI Will Not Provide Sustainable Competitive Advantage,” by David Wingate, Barclay L. Burns, and Jay B. Barney.

9. Hybrid Work Is Not the Problem — Poor Leadership Is

Leaders who are pushing for four or five days in the office every week are fixated on the wrong problem. Hybrid work is not a policy challenge — it’s a leadership capability challenge. Organizations that are excelling under flexible work policies have common characteristics that have nothing to do with specific attendance policies. They’re focused on measuring results, not physical presence, and giving employee teams the autonomy, tools, and redesigned office spaces that drive superior outcomes.

Read the full article “Hybrid Work Is Not the Problem — Poor Leadership Is,” by Brian Elliott, Nicholas (Nick) Bloom, and Prithwiraj (Raj) Choudhury.

10. Time Well Spent: A New Way to Value Time Could Change Your Life

When individuals engage in fulfilling activities outside of work, they perform better on the job, but simply encouraging work-life balance doesn’t help with hour-by-hour time management. A new tool for measuring the subjective value of time for individuals as it varies across their weekly activities provides the granular data insights that can help shift nonwork activities to those that are of greater benefit to people’s well-being. The article explains how leaders can make this a team activity.

Read the full article “Time Well Spent: A New Way to Value Time Could Change Your Life,” by Leslie Perlow and Salvatore Affinito.