The Human Algorithm: Leading Maintenance Teams in the AI Era

As artificial intelligence reshapes maintenance operations, the greatest challenge for leaders isn’t technological, but cultural. INSEAD Professor Gianpiero Petriglieri reveals how maintenance leaders can preserve humanity while embracing automation.

Text and photo: Mia Heiskanen

In an era where predictive maintenance algorithms and AI-driven decision-making tools are becoming standard, maintenance leaders face a crucial question: How do we maintain our organizational culture’s vitality while leveraging technological advancement?

“The moment even leaders are suffocated by ‘ought,’ the culture begins to lose its humanity. It becomes mechanical,” warns Professor Gianpiero Petriglieri, addressing a crucial challenge in today’s management landscape. This insight becomes particularly relevant as maintenance organizations globally navigate the integration of AI and automation systems.

Just as equipment requires preventive maintenance, organizational culture demands intentional care. Petriglieri identifies three critical “cultural malfunctions” that leaders must monitor:

Cultural Diffusion: When rapid technological implementation leads to losing sight of core organizational values

Cultural Stagnation: When successful maintenance practices become unquestionable, blocking innovation

Cultural Fragmentation: When maintenance, operations, and engineering teams work in silos, breaking down the essential communication channels needed for integrated operations

These cultural issues manifest through three workplace symptoms: distraction, distress, and disconnection – what Petriglieri calls “the 3Ds of workplace despair.”

Petriglieri reinforces this perspective, citing that organizations can achieve a 20-25 % performance improvement by properly integrating AI with human capabilities. “It’s not going to be a human-only workforce of the future. It’s also not going to be only an AI-driven workforce. It is going to be humans augmented by AI.”

For maintenance leaders, Petriglieri suggests a three-part approach to keeping organizational culture alive:

Investment in Principles: Define and reinforce what your maintenance organization truly values beyond efficiency metrics

Practice Enhancement: Regularly update procedures while preserving essential human judgment

People Development: Foster connections between technical teams and across organizational levels

“Learning is the oxygen of culture,” Petriglieri states, emphasizing that continuous learning should be viewed not as operational overhead but as essential cultural maintenance.

The Human-Data Interface. In an industry increasingly driven by condition monitoring and predictive analytics, Petriglieri challenges the notion of being “data driven.” Instead, he advocates for being “data-informed” – using technical data to enhance, not replace, human judgment and experience.

“Machines can be data driven. Humans are not data driven. We will never be,” Petriglieri asserts. “Humans are driven by duties and desires.” This distinction is crucial for leaders managing the integration of e.g. AI-powered maintenance systems while preserving team engagement and expertise.

Future-Proofing Leadership. The key to successful leadership lies in maintaining what Petriglieri calls “the courage to act and the courage to ask.” Leaders must have the confidence to implement new technologies while maintaining the wisdom to question their impact on team dynamics and organizational culture.

For maintenance organizations navigating digital transformation, the message is clear: technical excellence and human connection aren’t opposing forces – they’re complementary strengths. The most successful leaders will be those who can harness both, creating cultures that are as reliable as their equipment and as adaptable as their teams.

This article is based on insights from the Nordic Business Forum webinar “Humanizing Leadership – How to Keep Culture Alive in the Age of AI” featuring Professor Gianpiero Petriglieri, Associate Professor of Organizational Behaviour at INSEAD, May 2025.

WHO?

Gianpiero Petriglieri is Associate Professor of Organizational Behaviour at INSEAD and an expert on leadership and learning in the workplace. His award-winning research and teaching focus on what it means, and what it takes, to become a leader. This work has earned him a spot among the 50 most influential management thinkers in the world.