For decades, companies have measured intelligence by hierarchy. The higher you climb, the more you’re expected to know. The C-suite has long been the brain; the rest, its nervous system.

Then AI arrived — and rewired everything.

Suddenly, intelligence isn’t a position; it’s a capability. A junior analyst with ChatGPT and the right curiosity can out-synthesize a board report. A frontline manager can automate processes that IT departments ignored for years. In this new situation, the question becomes strangely inverted:

Should AI intelligence concentrate in leadership — or diffuse across the organization?

The case for top-down intelligence is familiar. Strategic clarity depends on leaders who can see the system, weigh risks, and guide transformation without being dazzled by novelty. A CEO who speaks AI fluently can ask sharper questions, challenge vendor promises, and connect emerging capability to genuine business outcomes. In many ways, AI-literacy at the top is now table stakes.

Strategy dies where curiosity ends

A CEO may articulate a vision, but it’s the mid-level decision-makers who translate intent into daily practice. Without distributed intelligence — people experimenting, learning, and sometimes failing — the organization becomes an elegant theory disconnected from reality. Centralized intelligence may preserve control, but it throttles innovation.

Still, diffusion comes with its own risks. A thousand small pilots can easily become a thousand small distractions. Every team “doing AI” in its own way can generate local wins and global incoherence.

The paradox deepens: the more intelligence you spread, the harder it becomes to steer.

Central brain or collective mind?

Perhaps the answer isn’t choosing between central brain or collective mind — but designing the circuitry between them. Leaders who thrive in the AI era understand that intelligence now flows horizontally, not just vertically. They cultivate fluency at the top and autonomy below, connecting them through principles rather than permissions.

They don’t need to know every algorithm. They need to know how to ask better questions — and to build cultures where those questions don’t stop at the executive floor.

Because AI isn’t just transforming what we know. It’s transforming who gets to know.

Or?

Joachim Cronquist is a strategic AI advisor and founder of Cronquist AI. He helps business leaders turn AI into business clarity and measurable results.