AI Leadership in 2025: What Broke, What Held, What’s Coming
What Changed, What Stayed True, and What Comes Next
This is my son and daughter.
Along with God, they’re the most important thing in my life. Them and my wife.
And 2025 taught me something critical: all the AI tools, all the productivity hacks, all the growth metrics mean absolutely nothing if they don’t give me more time for moments like this.
2025 was a year of change for me. I thought I was going to settle into a predictable routine, which is hilarious if you know me at all. I can’t do predictable. I constantly need to be learning something new, innovating, and trying something different.
But 2025 started as one of the most difficult years for the nonprofit I serve, World Relief. Political changes meant we had to completely reinvent how we served people. Everything we’d built had to be rethought in order to keep serving those who need it most.
Around the same time, in April, I decided to start putting on paper (virtual paper—does that count as paper?) what I was learning about AI and leadership.
Why? Because I see AI as one of the most important tools for leveling the playing field, for anyone, regardless of where they are in the world or how much capital they have. The distance from idea to delivered product is shorter than ever.
But more than that, because I believe the right tools, used well, give us back time for the people who matter most.
So in April, I launched Leadership in Change on Substack.
And it has been such a thrilling ride.
In this brief reflection, you’ll see:
Why the biggest AI victory has nothing to do with using the latest features
What stayed true no matter how fast the tools evolved
What I’m genuinely excited about for 2026
What Changed: I Stopped Chasing
The biggest moment for me in 2025 wasn’t discovering a new AI model or learning some advanced technique.
It was building my Second Brain system...
This simple framework gave me back something I’d been losing for months: time with my kids and my wife (such as 3 hours making, decorating, and giving out Christmas cookies) 👇…
It cut my content creation process down dramatically, not because it automated everything, but because it eliminated the scattered, time-wasting parts. The endless research loops. The thumbnail design struggles. The outline paralysis.
AI’s real value isn’t in doing more. It’s in freeing you for what matters most.
You don’t need the latest model. You don’t need to read every AI leadership textbook or implement every new feature. You need one to three tools that work for you, and you need to use them well.
What does “well” mean?
Simple. If your AI tools are:
Amplifying your existing skills
Strengthening your weak areas
Freeing time for the people who matter most
You’re winning. That’s it. That’s the victory.
What Stayed True: Human Skill Still Matters
No matter how good AI gets, your success depends on what you bring to it.
AI is an amplifier. And amplifiers don’t create, they multiply what’s already there. They multiply your work ethic, your effort, your ambition.
If you’re using AI to avoid developing skills, you’re setting yourself up for disappointment. But if you’re using AI to multiply skills you’ve already built? That’s where the real change happens.
This might shift in 5, 10, or 50 years. But right now, in 2025 and heading into 2026, the leaders who thrive with AI are the ones who bring something worth amplifying.
The tool doesn’t replace you. It reveals what you’re capable of when the friction is removed.
And here’s what I’ve learned: the best measure of any tool isn’t what it can do. It’s whether it gives you more capacity for the things only you can do. The irreplaceable things. Being a parent. Being a spouse. Being a friend.
Those are the things that actually matter.
What Comes Next: Better Tools, Better Use
I’m genuinely excited about what’s coming in 2026.
Better research tools. Fewer hallucinations. Smarter data analysis. Coding assistants that don’t rewrite your entire app when you need one small change.
But here’s what I’m most excited about: helping more leaders move beyond using only 10% of AI’s capacity, which is where about 90% of AI users are stuck right now.
The gap isn’t about access to tools. It’s about understanding how to use what you already have so you can focus on the people and moments that truly count.
A Moment of Gratitude
I started this journey in late April 2025.
Eight months ago, Leadership in Change didn’t exist. Cozora.org didn’t exist. Newsletter Compass wasn’t even a concept.
Today, we’re almost at 2,500 free subscribers. We hit bestseller status on Substack. We launched Cozora.org. And Newsletter Compass is about to launch, a tool that’s going to genuinely help newsletter creators everywhere.
I’m blown away. Truly.
None of this happens without you. Without your engagement, your questions, your trust, your willingness to try what I share and tell me what works (and what doesn’t).
Thank you for reading. Thank you for participating. Thank you for collaborating with me on this mission to help leaders navigate AI with clarity, strategy, and faith.
I’m honored to serve you, and I can’t wait to continue in 2026.
As we close 2025: We’re offering 75% off our yearly Premium Member Hub cost for December. Over $500 in yearly value and potentially 5-10 hours saved per week.
Merry Christmas. I hope you have a beautiful one.
For me, Christmas is about celebrating the birth of Christ, the reminder that God entered into our messy, human world to be with us. It’s a time to reflect on what truly matters: faith, family, and the people we’re called to serve.
Happy New Year.
And I really hope you use this time to unplug from work responsibilities, from professional things that anybody can do for you. Focus on the things that only you can do. Be a father, a mom, a husband, a wife, a daughter, a son, a friend.
The things that only you can do.
PS: Many subscribers get their Premium membership reimbursed through their company’s professional development $. Use this template to request yours.
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That is the real lesson from 2025 @Joel Salinas thanks! AI works best when it serves people, not when people are redesigned around tools.
Talent magnet leaders can build top-performing teams and attractive workplaces when technology removes noise and leaders can focus on trust, judgment, and meaningful work.
When AI amplifies clarity instead of control, culture becomes a performance factor, not a slogan.
Thanks so much for this post Joel. And for living by your advice that we should be using AI to help give us more time with the humans in our lives. As a fellow Christian, would also be really cool to explore what JC's take would be on AI sometime the future. But in the meantime have a very special Christmas with your family. 🙏