When Innovation Becomes a Liability

A few weeks ago, I published an article about a contractor who filed a protest with the Government Accountability Office (GAO). The submission was polished, persuasive and complete with legal citations. But GAO wasn’t amused. The problem? The citations didn’t exist. The sources were fictional. The submission showed signs of artificial intelligence generation — polished, but ultimately fabricated.

Now, I’m not here to sound the alarm. I get it. I use these tools too. They’re fast, capable and highly efficient. AI drafts proposals, legal memos, even strategic plans with a single click. But when those outputs contain fabricated information — even unintentionally — the issue stops being technical and starts being ethical. And we compromise integrity when we endorse fiction as fact, no matter how convincing it sounds. That’s not a technical patch job; that’s a leadership failure.

Integrity Can’t Be Automated

AI doesn’t possess moral judgment. It doesn’t care about responsibility, consequence or your reputation. And when a bot churns out bogus data, it’s not the algorithm that loses its credibility. It’s the executive who clicked “send.”

This issue cuts straight to the heart of values in leadership. Leaders sit at the intersection of innovation and ethical discernment. Processes can be automated, but integrity cannot. Integrity requires judgment, accountability and the willingness to slow down when speed tempts us to skip the hard questions. Because integrity — not efficiency, not even innovation — is the single biggest factor that sustains trustworthiness over time.

Beyond the Click: Balancing Innovation With Stewardship

Here’s how leaders can stay grounded in their values while embracing new tools that redefine productivity:

• Audit Your Incentives. Ask: What behaviors are we really rewarding? Incentives shape behavior. If success metrics focus on output, speed or “first to file,” you may be unintentionally sidelining accuracy, ethics and due diligence. Instead, recalibrate your metrics to reward thoughtful execution and principled decision-making. Make it clear that integrity isn’t a “nice to have” — it’s a performance standard.
• Build a Verification Culture. Make fact-checking a team sport. Normalize the question: “How do we know this is true?” Encourage teams to challenge assumptions. Reward those who catch errors before they become liabilities. When information hygiene becomes everyone’s responsibility, it scales and when it scales, it sticks.
• Embed Accountability Checkpoints. Bake judgment right into the workflow, not just in your training manual. For example, if your team uses generative tools, pair them with checklists or peer reviews. Innovation should amplify your values, not bypass them. When tech is designed to support ethical decision-making, it becomes a force multiplier for trust.

Innovation is inevitable. Integrity is intentional. The leaders who endure aren’t just tech-savvy — they’re values-driven. They know that credibility compounds, and shortcuts erode trust. So yes, move fast. But move forward with your values intact. Because in the end, innovation expands capability — but integrity defines credibility.

Adeline (Addy) Maissonet is a senior advisor on contracting policies and procedures within the Office of the Secretary of War, U.S. Department of War (DoW) and the agency’s representative on the Department’s views on proposed legislation to Congressional members, their staff, and committee staffers. She leads the development and implementation of Department-wide procurement policies for commodities and services, within her portfolio. Prior to her current role, Addy served as a Division Chief and Contracting Officer with unlimited warrant authority for the U.S. Army Mission and Installation Contracting Command (MICC) – Fort Eustis, Virginia. Prior to joining the MICC, Addy served as a Branch Head for the Mid-Atlantic Regional Maintenance Center (MARMC), Norfolk, Virginia, with unlimited warrant authority. She also held other procurement positions with the U.S. Navy. Addy holds an MBA in Management and Contracting Level III Certification under the Defense Acquisition Workforce Improvement Act. She is a graduate from Cornell University’s Executive Leadership Certificate Program and Harvard University’s Business Analytics Certificate Program. In her free time, Addy enjoys hiking and overlanding with her family and friends.

Note: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Department of War.

Photo by Ivan Aleksic on Unsplash