I am the Man with Two Talents: Servant Leadership in the Age of AI

Servant Leader, we’ve all heard it for years now in board rooms, conference halls, and webinars, and it usually goes something like this.

The company with the greatest AI adoption has already won.

Or…

If you haven’t already restructured for AI, you’re missing ROI.

But those are the “Five-Talent” companies. The ones with the resources, budgets, and data sets that foster enterprise-wide AI dominance.

But what if you’re the man with two talents? What does that even mean?

For the kingdom of heaven is like a man traveling to a far country, who called his own servants and delivered his goods to them. And to one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one, to each according to his own ability; and immediately he went on a journey. Then he who had received the five talents went and traded with them, and made another five talents. And likewise he who had received two gained two more also. But he who had received one went and dug in the ground, and hid his lord’s money. (Matt 25:14-18, NKJV)

Most sermons focus on the man with five talents as exemplary of how we should treat God’s gifts – or on the man with one talent as a cautionary tale of how we shouldn’t treat what God has given us to steward. Few focus on the realistic model for today’s age, which is the man with two talents.

The story of the man with two talents isn’t sexy or powerful. It’s mundane. Even Jesus stuck him in the middle of the story as a sort of McGuffin to bridge the successful man and the miser. But here’s the thing about the man in the middle that we don’t talk about:

Sure, he wasn’t given the most – but neither was he given the least. He had something to work with. He wasn’t the star – but he also wasn’t the failure. He was simply…

…faithful.

Application to GovCon

What does this mean for us, Servant Leader, in today’s business model?

Well, most GovCon firms aren’t multi-billion-dollar integrators with enormous R&D budgets and a staff full of AI experts. Most are full of two-talent leaders working with what they have, struggling to not bust the budget before the end of the fiscal year and have growth or performance to show for it.

The question isn’t “Why don’t I have five talents?”

The question is, “What am I doing with what God has already given me?”

Comparing Talents is the Enemy of Stewardship

The servant with two talents didn’t complain about having less than five. He simply used his two talents to gain two more. That’s a 100% ROI – unheard of in most GovCon circles and mostly overlooked by pastors and parishioners alike.

What we don’t realize is that comparison creates paralysis. If the two-talent servant spent his days complaining about not receiving five talents, he would be equally guilty of squandering his gifts as the one-talent man. Moreso since he had more to work with.

If we pay attention to the man in the middle, what we learn is that Jesus never asks him to account for the resources of the five-talent man. He’s not expected to be responsible for what he doesn’t have.

God simply asks him to make an account for the two talents he’s been given.

He also who had received two talents came and said, ‘Lord, you delivered to me two talents; look, I have gained two more talents besides them.’ His lord said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant; you have been faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.’ (Matt 25:22-23, NKJV)

In business, we often compare ourselves to the successful model in our sphere. IT companies compare themselves to Palantir or Amazon. Weapons manufacturers compare themselves to Raytheon or Lockheed. Behemoths in our industry.

What we all should be doing is asking, “What can we uniquely provide?” (Hint: That’s the discriminator God has given you to steward!) Instead of asking, “How do we become the next [insert behemoth here]?”, try asking “Who benefits from what we do?”

Here’s the thing – stop chasing someone else’s calling. Stop pursuing five talents when you’ve only been given two talents. That your stage in your journey. Use it wisely.

AI Does Not Change the Assignment

Let’s muddy the waters in our discussion. I opened this blog talking about the impact of AI and companies that have fully embraced it. Let’s be honest. AI feels disruptive. It changes the tools, moves impacts to the left, and challenges long-standing traditional workflows.

But it doesn’t change the mission.

In Matthew, the master’s command remained the same to the two-talent man as to the five-talent man: Take what I’ve given and multiply it.

And let’s be honest. The tools we have on hand today would astonish previous generations of GovCon leaders. We have AI, RPA, and LLMs.

And the question isn’t, “Should we use AI?”

Rather, the correct question is, “Can AI help us better serve our customers, employees, stakeholders, and shareholders?”

It’s not a question of AI replacing stewardship – it’s AI amplifying stewardship.

The Difference Between Multiplication and Replacement

Many organizations see AI as a way to reduce overhead by replacing human labor. How many stories are in the news about behemoths cutting thousands of workers?

That’s the wrong approach. God’s model didn’t replace the two-talent man with another five-talent man. And the servant didn’t eliminate the work required of his master. He multiplied its value.

Servant leaders ask different questions to steward precious resources:

-          How can AI remove repetitive tasks and make my workforce more efficient?

-          How can AI improve service quality to fix the problem sooner?

-          How can AI free people to do uniquely human work?

In GovCon, we can use AI to achieve a Pink Team-ready proposal in hours, not days. We can analyze performance, requirements, and the competition. We can audit compliance, research the market, and prepare smarter for customer engagement. The goal isn’t fewer humans – it’s better human contribution.

And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. (Eph 4:12, NKJV)

Ephesians expands on the Parable of the Talents by explaining God’s thought process – He equips the workforce for the tasks He has designed them to do.

As servant leaders in GovCon, it’s our job to multiply our team’s talents, not bury them.

The master’s response for both, the five-talent man and the two-talent man, was equal. “Well done, good and faithful servant.” He didn’t praise the five-talent man more for a greater return – he recognized the 100% return equally from the two-talent man.

Not “richer servant” or “larger return”.

Faithful servant.

So, what does this mean in the Age of AI?

The future doesn’t belong solely to those with the most technology and biggest budgets. It belongs to those who steward technology and human talent wisely. Servant leaders in the Age of AI must remain humble enough to learn, wise enough to verify, courageous enough to adapt, faithful enough to serve, and disciplined enough to remain ethical.

The question isn’t about how many talents you’ve been entrusted with.

It’s about what you do with the talents you have.

I Am the Man with Two Talents

Most servant leaders will never have the chance to lead billion-dollar companies. Most of us will never have unlimited resources, be the richest man on the planet, or even have five talents.

But that’s okay.

Because the true hero of the Parable isn’t the servant with the most. It’s the faith of the servant with just enough.

And in the Age of AI, servant leadership means embracing innovation without worshipping it, using technology without being used by it, and multiplying God’s gifts for the benefit of others.

So, when the marketing brochure asks, “Why isn’t your business growing like [insert behemoth here]?” You can respond with

“I was given two talents, and I returned four.”

Well done, good and faithful servant.

*Note: [insert behemoth here] is my writing, not an AI misprint. However, AI was used to generate the graphic. :)