Leading green with heart and intelligence: Uniting AI, emotional intelligence, and transformational leadership for a sustainable future

• Green Transformation Leadership significantly enhances environmental sustainability , emphasizing visionary, eco-conscious leadership practices across diverse industries in Pakistan. • Spiritual Leadership also contributes positively , though with a lesser impact than Green Transformation Leadership in driving sustainable outcomes. • Artificial Intelligence (AI) does not significantly moderate the relationship between leadership and environmental sustainability, highlighting its current limitations in this context. • Emotional Intelligence (EI) proves to be a powerful moderator , strengthening the effect of Spiritual Leadership on environmental sustainability outcomes. • It offers critical implications for scholars and practitioners aiming to build sustainable leadership models that integrate human and technological dimensions . This research investigates how Green Transformation Leadership and Spiritual Leadership affect Environmental Sustainability as AI and EI play a moderating role between these variables. The study used a quantitative methodology to obtain data from 389 workers who work in Manufacturing, Services, Education, Healthcare, Information Technology and various locations throughout Lahore, Karachi, Islamabad, Faisalabad, Multan and Sialkot in Pakistan. The data was collected using purposive sampling techniques alongside five-point Likert-scale structured questionnaires. The research shows that Green Transformation Leadership has a substantial influence on Environmental Sustainability through leadership approaches which emphasize sustainability for environmental success and Spiritual Leadership shows a positive impact on Environmental Sustainability yet its effects are less pronounced than Green Transformation Leadership. Moreover, the study established that AI fails to influence the relationship between Green Transformation Leadership and Environmental Sustainability because it does not strengthen sustainability initiatives based on leadership practices. Additionally, the research showed that Emotional Intelligence operates as an effective force that enhances the relationship between Spiritual Leadership and Environmental Sustainability. This research demonstrates that leadership styles together with emotional intelligence serve as central elements for promoting sustainable organizations and enable organizational environmental sustainability but emotional intelligence provides additional power to spiritual leadership effectiveness in this area while providing essential knowledge to researchers and leaders who want to build sustainable leadership practices. Future research needs to investigate additional barriers and obstacles that AI faces in its mission to support sustainability initiatives.