Every so often, someone with a security detail, a compensation committee, and five administrators shows up to tell the rest of us that the top job is actually fairly straightforward.
This week’s entry is Google and alphabet CEO Sundar Pichaiwho said Edge Tuesday (May 26) that “the CEO’s job isn’t that complicated,” which is a line Fast company It was treated as a provocation and a test of leadership for Rorschach.
Pichai’s point was not that any sentient spreadsheet could run Google. The point was that AI might help CEOs make more rational decisions, and that “very few decisions” really matter, Pichai said.
The real task is to make decisions, maintain high speed and keep the company moving, he said in the report.
Somewhere, the 40,000 vice presidents of the alliance felt cold.
To be fair, Pichai is not the first giant to imply that a CEO’s job boils down to decision quality and pace. Amazon Founder and former CEO Jeff Bezos has been saying a version of this for years, but with more thunder on day one. On Amazon 2016 shareholders letterBezos said that big companies make “high-quality, high-speed decisions,” and he famously divided decisions into two types: reversible doors and one-way doors.
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In a Excerpted from Fast CompanyBezos put it more clearly. Senior executives are paid to make a small number of high-quality decisions, not thousands.
This will be a relief until you remember that one of those decisions might involve purchasing a grocery chain, launching a satellite network, or naming a voice assistant—something that will forever haunt parents after Alexa.
Microsoft Chairman of the Board of Directors and CEO Satya Nadella I took the CEO model as the decision engine and added a softer operating system. in Harvard Business ReviewNadella described the job as rediscovering the soul of Microsoft, which sounds less like running a company than performing an exorcism on quarterly goals.
Nadella’s real obsession was culture, moving Microsoft from internal strife to a growth mindset. in Stanford University Graduate School of Business and WhartonNadella linked empathy to innovation, saying that understanding unmet needs is not easy; It’s product strategy wearing a cardigan. In Nadella’s version, the CEO is not the only one who calls the shots. The CEO is the main body that gives permission for the company to stop behaving so horribly about itself.
Then there Nvidia Founder and CEO Jensen Huangwho spent the AI boom making every other executive look like they showed up to a Formula 1 race on a rented motorcycle. Huang said Harvard Business Review Running an AI-driven company requires constant innovation, and… Stanford GSBHe defended the first principles of flat thinking and communication. His management style is known to be unusual and includes a large number of direct reports, fewer individual reports, and a preference for conveying information in groups rather than through executive plumbing.
like Business insider As stated, Hwang’s model is closer to a human neural network than a hierarchy.
The CEO is not the king at the top of the pyramid. It’s the Wi-Fi router everyone hopes doesn’t go down during earnings week.
roadblock President, Chairman of the Board of Directors and Co-Founder Jack DorseyAt the same time, he seems determined to test whether AI can turn a CEO into a ubiquitous group chat. Fast company Dorsey wants up to 6,000 Block employees to report into a radically flat structure, it reported.
Wired He put the idea into a broader CEO dream of using AI as a tool for ubiquitous executive presence, digital multiplication and management on an impossible scale.
The Wall Street Journal It covered the harder side of the story, or Block’s massive workforce cuts and Dorsey’s argument that AI tools make small teams and flat structures possible.
Once upon a time, a CEO wanted an open-door policy. Now the door is an AI model and everyone stands in it.
Finance CEOs tend to talk about the job with less mysticism and manageable alarm.
JPMorgan Chase Chairman of the Board of Directors and CEO Jamie Damon He said Harvard Business School From the alumni that when a mistake is made, it can hurt a lot of people, a blunt reminder that at the scale of JP Morgan, “excuse me” is not a communications plan. He also advised leaders to surround themselves with truth-telling, which is essentially a Wall Street version of buying carbon monoxide detectors.
Dimon’s recent comments on artificial intelligence were similarly practical. Bloomberg He reported that he said he expects JPMorgan to hire more AI talent and fewer workers in some traditional banking categories.
The risks of drafting a CEO remain evergreen. The Wall Street Journal Covered Standard Chartered CEO Bill Winters Apologies after using the phrase “low-value human capital.”
This is why communications teams drink coffee from soup bowls.
Then there is the old guard. Warren Buffett Berkshire Hathaway annual Messages Treat the CEO job as much of a performance art as it is supervision. Write clearly, tell the owners what you want to know, and don’t fool shareholders because you’ll end up fooling yourself.
Black Rock Chairman of the Board of Directors and CEO Larry Fink I took corporate capital’s version of that idea and turned it into a recurring sermon about a company’s purpose. In his 2018 letter, which I republished Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate GovernanceFink said companies must show how they contribute to society, not just generate revenue. At BlackRock 2026 President’s speechHe applies this lens to AI and wealth creation, warning that the bigger question is not whether AI creates value, but rather who can participate in it.
So, is Pichai right? Maybe a CEO’s job isn’t complicated in the same way that flying a 747 isn’t complicated. Point your nose, avoid the mountains, calm the passengers, trust the instruments, and don’t let the autopilot become a judge. The task is simple. The consequences are in writing.
CEOs, depending on decade and wardrobe, have described themselves as decision makers, culture bearers, truth seekers, capital stewards, mentors, healers, and, more recently, AI leaders. The task may actually be limited to a few large calls. The trick is to make it for you before the company, the market, the regulators, the employees, the bots, and the group chat make it for you.
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