The Role And Impact Of Ai On School Leaders' Agency In Austria: A Qualitative Study

Abstract

This article examines how Austrian school leaders enact professional agency in the context of integrating artificial intelligence (AI) into their daily leadership practices. Recent educational discourse has increasingly called for a new type of leadership: “edupreneurial leaders” (Pashiardis & Brauckmann, 2018), capable of transforming schools into adaptive, innovative, and learner-centered organizations. This shift places leaders in multidimensional roles as change agents, knowledge brokers, and process facilitators (Brauckmann & Eder, 2019). These evolving responsibilities raise critical questions about the extent to which AI supports or undermines school leaders' professional agency. Drawing on a qualitative content analysis by Mayring (2022), and based on 10 in-depth interviews with school leaders from various school types, the findings reveal that AI is predominantly used to augment, rather than automate, tasks related to communication, documentation, and instructional support. While AI enables efficiency and cognitive relief, leaders deliberately retain decision-making authority, revealing a reflective and cautious approach. The study contributes to the growing discourse on educational leadership in the digital age by offering a nuanced understanding of how AI reshapes, but does not replace, school leadership agency. It concludes that the future of school leadership depends not only on technological innovation, but also on ethical, strategic, and reflective navigation of AI tools.