Transforming Leadership: Navigating a Net Positive Future with AI

Laura Bonamici opened the conversation by asking Paul Polman to unpack what Net Positive really means.

For Paul, being Net Positive means running companies to be regenerative, restorative, and reparative — with people and planet at the center.

The scale of today’s environmental and social crises demands a fundamental rethink of how businesses operate. It’s about giving back more than you take: strengthening employees and communities, restoring nature, and contributing to a healthier economy. Crucially, it goes beyond simply “doing less harm” through ESG.

That shift also requires moving past shareholder primacy toward a true stakeholder mindset — and reframing sustainability not as a cost, but as one of humanity’s greatest investment opportunities. In that context, Paul positioned AI as a powerful enabler, capable of accelerating this transformation and turning intent into impact.

Laura then turned to Shin Shuda for his perspective on how AI can help to drive Net Positive. Shin started by citing FUJITSU-MONAKA*, an innovative processor that delivers powerful performance with a fraction of the energy.

He went on to explain how AI dramatically accelerates the journey from intent to impact. As agentic AI reshapes the way work gets done, people will spend less time on routine tasks and more time collaborating, creating, and solving complex problems. But Shin was clear: the real challenge isn’t the technology — it’s the human side. Leadership, adaptability, and cultural intelligence will ultimately determine success.

Uvance Wayfinders, Fujitsu's consulting arm that Shin leads, provide the end-to-end support to help organizations not just adopt AI, but turn it into these kinds of measurable outcomes and real ROI.

Paul returned to a recurring theme: AI is an incredible accelerator. But without purpose, it has no direction. Purpose, he said, is what gives leaders both clarity and courage.

Reflecting on his time at Unilever, Paul shared how a simple but ambitious purpose — “making sustainable living commonplace” — reshaped the business. Brands stopped being just products and became platforms for tackling real global challenges.

That transformation followed five clear steps:
• Commit for the long term: Take responsibility for your total impact.
• Measuring what matters: Understand where you can drive real positive change.
• Set science-based targets: Ground ambition in evidence, aligned with frameworks like the Paris Agreement.
• Build powerful partnerships: Progress happens faster together.
• Earn trust: Through transparency, accountability, and constant feedback.

The result? Unilever emerged as one of the world’s most sustainable companies — while still delivering strong shareholder returns. Paul’s message was clear: embed purpose and sustainability at the very core of the business, integrate it across every function, tie it to financial performance, and use partnerships to drive truly transformative change.

Shin brought the point to life with a real-world example: a client, a 100-year-old Japanese company is using AI to tackle supply-chain risk head-on. By deploying more than 80 AI agents, the company improved fulfillment and quality, proving how purpose-led AI can directly shape strategy and deliver results.

Paul agreed. When AI is anchored in purpose, he said, it becomes an extraordinary enabler of progress. Able to map complex supplier networks, strengthen human-rights monitoring, and accelerate the path to net-zero.

The conversation then shifted to how AI drives impact end-to-end. Laura asked Shin how empathy shapes every step. He highlighted Fujitsu’s unique approach: a tech stack built on trust, responsibility, and sustainability. Their AI prioritizes explainability and sovereign environments, areas they’ve researched for over 20 years.

This underpins Uvance Wayfinders’ end-to-end model. Unlike traditional consulting, Fujitsu doesn’t just advise; they live by the Japanese principle of “finishing what we started,” partnering with clients from strategy to implementation to deliver measurable ROI and build confidence in AI adoption.

For the final question on essential leadership qualities, Paul reflected on the COVID-19 pandemic, noting that purpose-driven, multi-stakeholder companies led with humanity, humility, empathy, and compassion, and outperformed. He cautioned, “Technology alone will not make your business moral.” AI, he said, amplifies moral leadership, and the next competitive advantage will come from combining data with purpose to build trust and drive Net Positive outcomes.

Shin agreed, emphasizing that leadership will face unprecedented tests, with empathy at its core. Cultural intelligence, curiosity, and creativity will be vital as agentic AI takes on routine tasks, requiring deeper human collaboration. Resilience is key too: AI will make mistakes, and leaders must learn, iterate, and adapt. Leadership isn’t just for executives — it starts the moment someone joins a company, as everyone using AI will need these skills.

Laura Bonamici wrapped up by highlighting that curiosity, creativity, empathy, and resilience, once called “soft skills”, are now critical to thriving in both Net Positive and AI transformations. She thanked Paul and Shin for a discussion that bridged vision with measurable impact, showcased end-to-end sustainable transformation, and underscored the leadership mindsets needed for an AI-driven, Net Positive future.

*FUJITSU-MONAKA: Fujitsu's next-generation, Arm-based processor series for data centers