We’ve spent the past months developing something that has reshaped how we think about learning, technology, and expertise.
At KS Insight, we’re building a dynamic leadership simulator - an AI-powered tool that places leaders in complex, adaptive scenarios where their choices ripple into realistic consequences.
Grounded in our Adaptive Leadership framework, the simulator challenges leaders to navigate situations like post-merger tensions, competing co-leads, and eroding trust. It doesn’t follow preset paths - it learns from how leaders respond: how they diagnose problems, calibrate authority, and develop others. It tracks whether they’re addressing symptoms or root causes, adjusts difficulty as their skill grows, and provides feedback grounded in decades of leadership research.
The simulator is still in refinement - it’s not yet available publicly. But even in development, it’s been a profound learning experience for us.
Out of curiosity, we tested whether this kind of depth could be easily replicated using publicly available models. We tried rebuilding the simulation on other platforms using the same prompts - Perplexity, Gemini, Claude, and the free version of ChatGPT.
At first glance, they looked like they worked - generating scenarios and feedback - but under stress, the differences were clear. All could generate plausible situations. None could match the rigor or developmental precision. They couldn’t test judgment under pressure or deliver feedback that truly built leadership capacity.
The real value isn’t access to AI - it’s what you’ve taught it.
Our custom GPT is trained on KS Insight’s intellectual property: our Adaptive Leadership framework, diagnostic tools, authority calibration models, and developmental feedback methods. That body of practice - honed over decades - is what gives the AI its depth. The model simply extends that practice into a new form.
This raises an intriguing question: as AI begins to learn from our expertise, are we entering a new phase of learning ownership?
If your AI has absorbed your methods, your diagnostic lens, your way of leading - does that make it something to protect, or to share? Does it become a living extension of your experience?
We’re still exploring these questions. But one thing feels clear: the power of AI in leadership development won’t come from automation. It will come from how thoughtfully we teach it.