Businesses and boards are at a crossroads. Two tectonic shifts are playing out: AI’s ascendance, and the retreat from inclusion. Each is disruptive in its own right, but together, they are potentially catastrophic and risk consigning some businesses firmly to the wrong side of history.
Will we look back on the 2020s as the decade when technology rebalanced work, or when leaders chose efficiency over equity and squandered the one advantage that would beat the algorithm?
When Language Goes, So Goes Clarity
The UK has not been immune to the backlash against so-called “woke capitalism” that has played out in the US. Rolls-Royce, for example, has announced the dismantling of its diversity structures and network, consolidating them into a bland new “employee voice” model. Behind a smokescreen of “nothing has changed”, firms have stealthily removed EDI language from their policies and reports, as “Diversity” becomes “Culture”, “Inclusion” is rebranded as “Wellbeing”, and “Equity” is rebranded as “Talent”. We are sold all of this as a pragmatic move to lower tension.
But something has changed. A people strategy that does not mention gender, race, class or disability is evasive, and evasion is the enemy of progress. More importantly, this retreat erodes trust. The Co-op has warned that abandoning diversity and inclusion would undermine trust with both staff and customers. In an economy where reputation can collapse overnight, trust is a hard currency.
In the US, the retreat is already at scale with lawsuits against large employers, state legislators demanding disclosure of DEI programmes, and headlines announcing corporate rollbacks. UK firms are watching, and some are starting to follow suit. And this is happening just as AI is reshaping work in ways we are only beginning to fathom. To shrink from equity at this moment is to shrink from both moral obligation and leadership capacity.
AI will do many things. It will summarise thousands of pages of reports. It will generate code, optimise logistics and, before long, tell us who to hire and what to pay them. AI will make us more efficient. But efficiency is not leadership. If the systems surrounding AI are inequitable, AI will not fix them; instead, it will amplify them.
There is already evidence of this. One UK study found that AI used by more than half of English councils understated women’s social care needs. In the private sector, recruitment algorithms have replicated gender bias.
AI Will Not Save Us from Ourselves
It need not be this way. AI, if implemented and audited correctly, could help to close gaps by exposing pay disparities, hiring bias and overlooked talent. But algorithms cannot hold decision-makers accountable. Only leaders can.
Equity as Strategic Infrastructure
For years, equity has been justified through the business case. Diverse teams are more productive, inclusion improves retention, and equity attracts talent. In the AI era, equity is more than that. It is a strategic infrastructure because it enables us to build human capabilities that no machine can replace.
Diverse teams have keener moral clarity under pressure, less groupthink and a greater ability to identify blind spots. Inclusive leadership cultivates the ability to work with perspectives that don’t align and still move forward. These capabilities are exactly those leaders will need to manage AI: where hidden risks balance every gain. In a world where algorithms can seem faceless and unaccountable, organisations with visibly fair leaders will have the decisive trust advantage.
If you cannot run an equitable promotion process for women into P&L roles, you will not be ready to run an AI deployment that protects vulnerable workers or consumers. The same blind spots that corrode equity also corrode innovation, risk management and long-term growth.
The Fork in the Road
Now boards face a choice. One path mirrors the US retreat, characterised by a softening of language and the dismantling of structures. The other reinforces equity as a measurable, transparent, board-level priority.
In the decade ahead, the real competitive edge will not come from easy cost-cuts or automation. It will come from what machines cannot do: making decisions that people trust. Equity is not just about representation or compliance. It is about the business of leadership itself. Retreating from equity means leaders lose the habit of asking: whose interests are being served? Once that muscle withers, it is hard to rebuild.
The Moral Gap is the Leadership Gap
A decade from now, boards will be judged not only on returns but on the fairness of their decisions. We will audit AI systems for both equity and efficiency, and measure leadership pipelines not just in terms of headcount but also in terms of who has access to revenue-generating roles. Only leaders can ensure fairness. That is the last human advantage, and it is the one most at risk.
