Tony Qualls Joins Leadership Language Podcast to Discuss Why AI Raises the Stakes for Technology Leaders

FAIRFAX, United States, September 11th, 2026, FinanceWire

The AdventHealth regional CIO and Leadership Language podcast host Bill Tingle examine why influence, communication and leadership skills are becoming increasingly important as AI reshapes technology work.

AdventHealth Regional CIO Tony Qualls has joined former CIO Bill Tingle on the latest episode of the Leadership Language podcast for a conversation examining a persistent challenge in technology: technically accomplished professionals are often promoted into management roles without equivalent preparation for leading people, communicating with business executives and building organizational influence.

In 1999, Qualls was handed his first management job after the previous manager had been fired. A former Navy electronics technician who had been repairing MRI machines, Qualls suddenly found himself responsible for leading the same people he had worked alongside as peers.

“I was nervous. I was scared,” Qualls said. “Here I was, trying to manage the same people I had been peers with.”

Qualls received no formal preparation for the transition. On the podcast, he describes the experience as representative of a broader leadership-development gap he has observed throughout his career in technology.

Qualls is now regional CIO for AdventHealth’s Great Lakes region in Chicago, where he partners with the University of Chicago Medicine. In April, he wrote a piece for the Heller Report, the CIO career blog run by executive search firm Heller Search, arguing that IT has a systemic habit of promoting unprepared leaders. Tingle read the piece and invited Qualls onto the podcast. Over 45 minutes, the two take the argument further, examining how artificial intelligence could make the consequences of that leadership gap increasingly significant.

The Promotion That Comes With No Instructions

“We are really great at promoting really good engineers, technicians, very highly technical, capable people,” Qualls said. “It’s that personality side that we kind of missed. How do we engage with the business?”

Qualls experienced the cost of that gap during his first year as a manager, when he had to approach the hospital’s CFO for funding.

“As an IT person, you’re thinking, this is an easy decision. I need to buy a new server. But within healthcare, every dollar matters, and you’re competing against other requests,” he said. “No one prepared me for how to articulate what I needed and how to argue for that the right way.”

Tingle spent 35 years in enterprise technology before beginning his work coaching IT directors and vice presidents pursuing CIO roles. His conversations with technology executives frequently examine the transition from technical expertise to organizational leadership.

Industry research provides additional context. In a 2026 Grant Thornton survey of 950 senior business leaders, only 6% named change leadership and workforce enablement as a top skill for succeeding with AI. CIO.com’s 2026 State of the CIO survey found that nearly a quarter of CEOs are asking their CIOs to strengthen collaboration between IT and the business, up from the prior year.

AI's Role in Technical and Leadership Work

Qualls does not treat AI as a threat to technology teams. Instead, he views it as a technology that could change where professionals provide the greatest value.

“AI can do the vast majority of our technical writing, even project planning, or pulling together a strategic plan and highlighting the gaps,” he said. “The more our teams take that low-end work off their plates, the more they can focus on what’s the value I can bring as the human.”

Qualls offered an example from his first months in the Chicago role. He gave a presentation laying out his vision for the department and left believing the message had landed. Conversations with several team members over breakfast subsequently revealed that elements of the vision had not been communicated as clearly as intended.

“I don’t know that AI could have ever picked up on that,” he said. “But me sitting there, having breakfast, in a relationship with these gentlemen, allowed me to ask questions that uncovered, oh boy, I did not communicate very well there.”

The experience illustrates a central theme of the conversation: as AI handles more technical and administrative work, interpersonal judgment, communication and relationship-building may become more consequential.

“One of the reasons I call it the Leadership Language podcast,” Tingle said during the episode, “is because there are stories we tell ourselves which keep us from doing things.”

Qualls, who grew up with a speech impediment, said his own reluctance to build relationships early in his career “starts from a place of fear.”

Tingle summarized the implications for the profession: “The stakes on the human side of leadership are going up, not down.”

Info-Tech Research Group’s IT Talent Trends 2026 report, released in June, makes a similar case, identifying critical thinking, adaptability and emotional intelligence among the skills becoming increasingly important as AI changes technology roles.

Technology Leadership Development Priorities

Qualls’ Heller piece identifies three areas of focus for CIOs: working on their own growth first, making leadership development a standing agenda item in team meetings, and changing promotion criteria so leadership ability counts alongside technical output.

Asked on the podcast which one a director or vice president should prioritize if only one could be addressed immediately, Qualls pointed first to the leader’s own development.

“It starts with me. It starts with the leader,” he said. “If we’re not growing ourselves, if we’re not modeling the behavior, our teams will see that disconnect.”

Qualls incorporates that approach into his own leadership routine through a recurring meeting item called “Tony’s Leadership Thoughts,” where he shares something he learned during the week, including mistakes. The practice is intended to create an environment where other team members can also acknowledge what they do not know.

On finding time for leadership development, Qualls offered a straightforward recommendation.

“If you’re not intentional, it will never happen. Fifteen minutes a day. Your car is a library on wheels.”

The episode concludes with a broader message for technology professionals: as AI assumes a greater role in writing, planning, analysis and other technical activities, communication, relationship-building, influence and people leadership are becoming increasingly important for those pursuing senior technology roles.

The full conversation with Tony Qualls is available now on the Leadership Language podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and YouTube.

About the Leadership Language Podcast

Leadership Language is hosted by former CIO Bill Tingle and features sitting and former technology executives talking about the human side of leading in IT: influence, communication, relationships and the decisions no one trains technology leaders for. The show is available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and YouTube. Technology executives interested in appearing as guests can reach the show through tingleleadership.com.

About Bill Tingle

Bill Tingle is a former CIO, CIDO and CTO with 35 years in enterprise technology, including nearly two decades at Enterprise Mobility. An ICF Professional Certified Coach, he has coached more than 200 technology leaders and now works with IT directors and vice presidents preparing for the CIO role. More at tingleleadership.com.

About Tony Qualls

Tony Qualls is regional CIO for AdventHealth’s Great Lakes region in Chicago. He has led technology across healthcare, government and an entrepreneurial venture for more than 20 years, including founding and selling a medical transcription company, and served six years in the U.S. Navy.

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