Brené Brown says the key to surviving AI is rejecting Jack Welch’s advice and embracing humanity. The problem is humans ‘can’t stand each other’

Our nervous systems aren’t ready for the level of uncertainty we’re facing right now. That’s according to Brené Brown, author, researcher, and professor, who spoke at the Fortune Most Powerful Women Summit in Washington, D.C., last fall. 

“It is extraordinarily difficult to be brave right now, for a lot of different reasons,” Brown said in October 2025. “Politics is one, but [also] radically changing markets. A workforce that is—I’m going to tell you right now, people are not okay. If you’re leading people, you probably know people are not okay.”

People are neurologically wired for certainty, not for a high level of stress, fear, and uncertainty, Brown said. Successful leadership at work today requires self-awareness, managing one’s nervous system, metacognition (or thinking about how we think), and the ability to slow down decision-making to stay aligned with one’s mission and values. 

Brown said while she’s a tech optimist, there are still many skills that are deeply human and aren’t replicable with AI—but we’re not doing a very good job at being humans........

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