Stephen M. R. Covey has built a career based on trust and leadership. His name—as well as his late father’s, Stephen Covey—is often associated with leadership theory, training and advice.

Stephen M.R. Covey is the former CEO of Covey Leadership Center, where he headed up the strategy that propelled his father’s influential book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People to become a bestseller. He then held top leadership positions when the center became FranklinCovey following its 1997 merger with Franklin Quest, and cofounded leadership consulting practice CoveyLink, which is now part of FranklinCovey and doing business as the Global Speed of Trust Practice.

In addition to helping leaders learn how to cultivate trust, Covey has also written two bestselling books on the topic: The Speed of Trust in 2006 and Trust & Inspire in 2022.

Trust between leaders and employees is always important to business, but the rise of generative AI is making it a much more complicated dynamic today. I talked to Covey about how to build (or rebuild) and maintain trust between management and employees in the new gen AI world. Today’s edition of Forbes CEO spotlights our conversation and what business leaders need to know.

Even before ChatGPT shook the world in late 2022, trust in both institutions and other people was waning, Covey said. Many people don’t trust businesses, government, institutions, media, science and experts—and Covey said such distrust can be contagious.

“In a low-trust world, it’s very important for leaders to counteract that and be intentional about building trust in their team, their company and their culture. …Because if you don’t, the default position will tend to drift towards distrust,” he said.

AI can make that drift worse. Covey described the wildly diverging attitudes toward AI. Some are excited, seeing it as a massive technological breakthrough that can help them achieve more than ever before.

But others view the technology with fear and trepidation. The fear stems through two viewpoints. Some may be worried about society in general, and are concerned that the rise of AI is the first step toward machines taking over all essential institutions. For others, the fear is much closer to home: They’re afraid........

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