Future Trends in Digital Leadership: Cultivating Innovation, Leveraging AI and Achieving Competitive Advantage: A Qualitative Study

The fast growth of digital technologies has led traditional leadership roles towards an organisational change requiring digital leaders who can steer through technological change, bring about innovation and keep up the competitive advantage. This research explores how digital leadership can affect organisational transformation by encouraging innovative cultures, incorporating technology trends, strategic planning and enhancing communication and employee development. We employed a qualitative case study approach where 20 leaders from five UAE-based media firms participated in semi-structured interviews. For data analysis, thematic analysis was conducted. The findings highlight the importance of creating an environment for innovation, balancing adoption of technology with effective risk management as well as developing comprehensive strategies towards digital transformation. For competitiveness’ sake, these should include continuous training, efficient communication and solid digital interfaces. This study significantly contributes to the theoretical discourse on digital leadership and organisational transformation by integrating Transformational Leadership Theory (TLT) and the Resource-Based View (RBV) into a unified framework. Practically, this research provides recommendations for transformational leadership behaviours, cross-functional teams and creating safe environments to experiment and innovate. Our recommendations include investing in AI-based tools that provide predictive insights, addressing ethical concerns and ensuring models are transparent and accountable and bringing AI insights into established workflows to better identify risk. This study’s detailed exploration of the catalysts for organisational change through digital leadership suggests that there is a requirement for a holistic approach across strategic planning, communication and employee development if companies are to navigate the complicated routes to digital transformation successfully.