26/08/2026
74% of CEOs believe their managers are "very confident" handling tough conversations.
Then you look at what those managers are quietly doing the night before a hard conversation.
A new study by The Predictive Index (surveying 399 managers and 208 CEOs) revealed a startling disconnect:
โข 42% of managers know what they want to say in a hard conversation, but struggle with how to say it.
โข 44% admit they have entered real employee names and performance details into public AI tools to help them prepare.
โข Yet only 45% of organizations have a formal policy governing that use.
Managers aren't turning to chatbots because they are careless with data.
They are turning to them because they have nowhere else to go.
The knee-jerk reaction is to ban AI from performance conversations outright.
That misses the real problem.
Putting sensitive employee data into a public model is a genuine compliance and privacy risk โ no question. But banning the tool without providing real support just pushes the behavior further into the shadows.
Managers are walking into high-stakes, emotionally charged conversations alone, with zero rehearsal.
๐๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ค๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ง๐ช๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ค๐ฆ ๐๐๐๐ด ๐ข๐ด๐ด๐ถ๐ฎ๐ฆ ๐ฆ๐น๐ช๐ด๐ต๐ด ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ค๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ง๐ช๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ค๐ฆ ๐ฎ๐ข๐ฏ๐ข๐จ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ด ๐ข๐ค๐ต๐ถ๐ข๐ญ๐ญ๐บ ๐ค๐ข๐ณ๐ณ๐บ ๐ถ๐ฏ๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ณ ๐ฑ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ด๐ด๐ถ๐ณ๐ฆ ๐ข๐ณ๐ฆ ๐ต๐ธ๐ฐ ๐ท๐ฆ๐ณ๐บ ๐ฅ๐ช๐ง๐ง๐ฆ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ต ๐ต๐ฉ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ๐ด.
And right now, that gap is being filled by whatever chatbot is closest at hand.
Where would your managers turn tonight if they had a difficult conversation tomorrow and no one to rehearse it with?