Humanistic Leadership and AI: Putting People Back at the Center of Digital Transformation
5 December 2025In an age where algorithms seem to dictate the speed of business, a counterintuitive need is emerging: investing in human beings. We interviewed Cristiano Boscato, CEO of Dinova and author of Era, ora. Intelligenza aumentata, lavoro vivo, to explore how Artificial Intelligence can become an amplifier of human talent rather than its replacement, outlining the contours of a new Humanistic Leadership.
Putting People at the Center of Digital Transformation: Beyond Technical Efficiency
Digital transformation is often told as a simple equation: more technology equals more efficiency. Automation, shorter processes, flawless data. But if everything is perfect, where is life?
Today, the best-performing companies are not only those that are more technologically advanced, but those capable of integrating innovation and emotional intelligence, technology and relationships.
In retail, for example, many brands have invested in advanced chatbots and e-commerce platforms, yet have lost the ability to create narrative and connection. AI reduces friction in processes, but it cannot replace the warmth of a choice or the intuition that arises from human contact.
Human beings remain the true drivers of digital transformation: the starting point and the destination of innovation. If AI does not improve the life of those who work or consume, it is not innovation—it is merely a technical upgrade.
The challenge for businesses is not to build smarter machines, but to build more aware people, capable of knowing when to follow the algorithm and when to have the courage to go beyond it.
Augmented Intelligence: AI as an Ally of “Living Work”
AI is often feared as something that drains work of meaning. In his book Era, ora. Intelligenza aumentata, lavoro vivo, Cristiano Boscato introduces the concept of Augmented Intelligence. What is it? It’s a paradigm shift: we stop seeing AI as a substitute for humans and start viewing it as an amplifier.
Augmented intelligence is an alliance between the computational logic of the machine and human sensitivity. The goal is not to do more (quantity), but to understand better (quality). AI can free work from its mechanical and repetitive tasks, giving people back the most precious resource: time to think, imagine, and choose.
Companies that adopt this approach will become living organisms, where technology does not reduce possibilities but expands them, transforming efficiency into value rather than a mere KPI.
In the future world of work—dominated by data—we will return to asking ourselves: What truly matters? We will no longer seek intensity of performance, but intensity of meaning.
Managers Who Think “Out of the Box” and a Human-Centric Approach: What Are the New Skills of the Future?
Business demands results, but the real question today is how we achieve them.
To guide this transition, we need managers capable not only of running processes but of transforming organizations. Leaders who combine data and sensitivity, strategy and language, numbers and meaning.
Boscato identifies three metaphorical figures that are key to the management of the future:
- The Alchemist of Failure, who transforms mistakes into knowledge, promoting a culture where error is part of learning.
- The Curator of Glossary, the manager who protects the meaning of words—and thus company culture—ensuring that technical language does not flatten vision.
- The Sensitive Economic Director, who interprets numbers not as cold data, but as vital signals of the corporate organism.
Thinking out the box today doesn’t just mean stepping out of the box—it means redesigning its shape. The leadership of the future will be empathetic, dialogical, and capable of integrating the intelligence of data with that of people.
AI compels us—and will increasingly compel us—to rethink work.
MBA and Artificial Intelligence: Why Humanistic Education Is Crucial
In this scenario, what is the role of advanced managerial education? Education is the laboratory in which we learn to breathe within complexity. An MBA today cannot be merely a technical qualification; it must be a transformative experience.
With AI permeating every sector, continuous learning becomes an act of cultural survival. A physical place is necessary to build dialogue, networks, and trust. An MBA must not only teach how to govern machines but how to converse with people. This soft skill is the true competitive differentiator.
The Bologna Business School Model: Technology and Humanism to Meet New Market Needs
Bologna Business School addresses these new market needs with a unique ecosystem that blends managerial solidity, humanistic culture, the sensitivity of Made in Italy, and an international vision.
BBS’s MBA programs have anticipated a fundamental trend: the future belongs not to those who execute, but to those who interpret. AI pushes us to become interpreters of data, emotions, algorithms, and stories. The programs cultivate integrated thinking, where technology and humanism intertwine: performance meets meaning, strategy meets sensitivity.
The curricula are updated annually based on market changes and the evolution of artificial intelligence.
In an automated world, the future belongs to those who remain irretrievably human.
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