Re-Placed - by Kari Zeller (Paperback)

About the Book

AI didn't arrive with a warning. It arrived with a question: what are you going to do now?

Book Synopsis

A Fast Company Press Book

AI didn't arrive with a warning. It arrived with a question: what are you going to do now?

Today, leaders are caught in a cascade of contradictions. The technology that promises unprecedented capability also delivers unprecedented doubt. AI makes everything faster, cheaper, and more capable. It also makes the most fundamental question of leadership unavoidable: what are humans actually for? You did not choose this moment. But you are responsible for who you and your organization become in it.

In Re-Placed, Leadership Strategist and CEO Kari Zeller offers something rare in the AI conversation: a leadership book that starts with the human, not the technology. The arrival of artificial intelligence doesn't have to displace us. But it will, unless we learn to re-place ourselves first-to consciously reposition who we are, how we lead, and where we create value in a world where intelligence is no longer ours alone. Through stories as practical as they are personal, Zeller shows how the strongest leaders take the helm during existential change, how re-placing ourselves is key to flourishing in this new era, and how what we choose to value matters more than what AI can do.

Drawing on decades of experience guiding senior executives through high-stakes transitions, from combat operations to the boardroom, Zeller provides a framework for the proactive, innovative leadership this moment demands. The linear thinking that built your success cannot survive this exponential wave. Re-Placed equips you to create the conditions where people and organizations don't just survive the shift, but flourish in it.

The future will not be managed. It must be led.

Review Quotes

As a CEO, I feel like I am hearing about some AI initiative almost daily anymore. My team is continually telling me how we can incorporate this technology or that technology to improve speed and accuracy in several areas of our business. These technological advancements are moving so fast that, oftentimes, it feels like we are just riding the waves of it all. In perfect Kari Zeller fashion, Re-Placed shows us that AI is reshaping the way we work and lead . . . even if we do not recognize it. Re-Placed (and Kari) refuses to treat this AI reality as merely a technical or efficiency challenge. In this book, Kari addresses the deeper truth: this era will require an identify-level shift for leaders, and avoiding it is no longer an option.

What makes this book essential to leading into and through this age of AI is that Kari helps us understand that it is not about competing with machines, but about recognizing, leveraging, and taking responsibility for the human context-judgment, care, courage, and meaning-amid extraordinary change. Re-Placed is thoughtful, practical, and, as always with Kari, deeply real and grounded in what leaders actually face.

- Corina Tracy, chief executive officer, US Urology Partners

For 25 years, Kari has supported and guided leaders like me, so it's no surprise she found a way to guide us through the transformational change of AI. She understands what we are going through, but more importantly, she adds a well-researched and de4ep understanding of the state of the technology to best explain its impact. Every leader needs the methodology and pathway she sets out-every leader needs this book!

-Jay Silveria, lieutenant general (retired), USAF, 20th USAFA superintendent of the US Air Force Academy, president of the University of Arkansas System

Higher education has undergone a profound transformation in recent years, and Kari's signature "new era" work has been instrumental in helping our college-and me, as a leader-navigate that shift with clarity and confidence. Our organization benefited deeply from the frameworks and practices at the heart of this book. Together, we focused on building a capacity for change as a core competency-positioning the college to thrive and lead in a dynamic, often unpredictable environment, rather than simply react to it. Kari's work elevates strategic thinking while grounding it in uniquely human insight, a combination that strengthens institutions and the people who serve within them.

-Georgia L. Lorenz, president of Seminole State College of Florida

In a time where AI and rapid change are reshaping organizations, Kari Zeller brings to our attention the potential and impending degradation of our own critical thinking and even our basic humanness. She addresses how artificial intelligence plays into our companies, our leaders, and the jobs which will very likely be replaced. She asks the question, Will we lead through this transformation or be led by it? For executives and boards, this book brings historical transformation stories and science-based reality into focus, and supports leadership through these changing times, for today and the future.

-Michele Ashby, named one of Top 25 Most Powerful Women in Business by Colorado Women's Chamber of Commerce, recipient of 2022 Women in Mining 100 Award, president & CEO of Ashby Consulting Enterprises