---
id: "entity-jamil-zaki"
type: "entity"
source_timestamps: ["§ Human centricity"]
tags: ["psychologist", "stanford"]
related: ["concept-human-centricity"]
entityType: "person"
canonicalName: "Jamil Zaki"
aliases: []
source_url: "https://hbr.org/2025/09/what-companies-with-successful-ai-pilots-do-differently"
source_title: "What Companies with Successful AI Pilots Do Differently"
sources: ["execution", "adoption"]
sourceVaultSlug: "hbr-foci-60-successful-ai-pilots"
originDay: 60
articleStem: "hbr-foci-60-successful-ai-pilots"
sourceUrl: "https://hbr.org/2025/09/what-companies-with-successful-ai-pilots-do-differently"
sourceTitle: "What Companies with Successful AI Pilots Do Differently"
isSpeakerEntity: true
---
## Segment 8 — execution

# Jamil Zaki

## Jamil Zaki

**Entity type:** person

Professor of psychology at Stanford University, known for research on empathy and author of *The War for Kindness*. In an HBR interview he noted that AI is widening the workplace **'empathy crisis'** exactly when employees need genuine connection.

### Role in this source
Cited as supporting evidence for the [[concept-human-centricity|human centricity]] SHAPE dimension — grounding the claim that trust and empathy are decisive during AI-induced anxiety.

## Segment 9 — adoption

## Article 42 — a042

# Jamil Zaki

**Role in this source:** Sole author of the HBR article this vault distills. Every claim, quote, and framework here is attributed to him.

**Profile:** Jamil Zaki is a professor of psychology at Stanford University, director of the Stanford Social Neuroscience Lab, and author of *The War for Kindness* and *Hope for Cynics*. He specializes in the science of human connection and works with organizations to embed these principles into their practices. His academic focus on empathy as a *trainable* capacity underpins the source's central argument that empathy is infrastructure, not a soft skill.

**Attributed contributions in this vault:**
- Coins/uses the labels [[concept-workslop-d42]] and [[concept-ai-for-interdependence]] and the 'empathy gyms' framing ([[concept-empathy-gyms]]).
- Advances the thesis-defining quotes [[quote-workslop-d9]], [[quote-training-replacement]], [[quote-masterclass-unempathetic]], and [[quote-technology-only-works-through-people]].
- Authors the [[framework-empathy-driven-ai-adoption]] and its three action items.
- Marshals survey evidence from [[entity-bcg-d42]], [[entity-catalyst]], [[entity-writer]], [[entity-businessolver]], and [[entity-mit-d9]] to support claims including [[claim-empathy-drives-innovation]] and [[claim-leader-perception-gap]].
- Advances all three contrarian reframes ([[contrarian-empathy-as-technical-prerequisite]], [[contrarian-ai-sabotage]], [[contrarian-ceo-empathy-decline]]).

**Canonical reference:** Stanford profile (psychology department / Social Neuroscience Lab).