The Judgement Gap: Consultings AI Blindspot 

We are delighted to welcome Adam Riley and Dr. David Smith to present at the latest event in the CMCE programme on the Responsible Use of AI.

Every consultant has experienced the moment. A deadline is close, the problem is messy, and the machine produces something fluent and polished in the time it takes to refill your coffee. The relief is real. So, is the question that should follow and too often does not: has the thinking improved, or only its appearance? 

 As AI drives the cost of competent work toward zero, the value shifts to what is hardest to automate and easiest to underrate: judgment, creativity, the sense to read a situation and the nerve to stand behind a call. Not, it turns out, ‘soft skills’ at all. This is the hard edge of human advantage. 

Adam’s and David’s presentation will travel from problem to practice to people. They will start by defining the judgment gap; then turn to the habits that close it and finally focus on the human skills that AI makes more valuable, not less.

Adam Riley is a senior strategy and management consultant with over thirty years of experience in insight, customer-led growth strategy and scenario planning. Adam started his career in insight agencies, and after an MBA at the London Business School joined Samsung in South Korea as a Global Marketing Strategist before becoming a senior consultant in the marketing strategy practice of Monitor Company. In 2006 he founded the insight consultancy Decision Architects.  In 2023 Adam co-founded Polymathmind.ai to focus on the human side of the human-AI equation. Adam is currently pursuing a PhD, researching the impact of AI-mediation on cognition and judgment in management consulting practice.

Dr. David Smith is an award-winning business researcher and management consultant. He holds a PhD in Organizational Psychology from the University of London and is Professor and Entrepreneur in Residence at the University of Hertfordshire Business School in the UK. Throughout his career he has been at the forefront of advancing business skills training, management consultancy practice and business insight — work recognized through numerous industry awards. David has authored five books covering insight, entrepreneurship and AI. David's current focus is on the strategic platform organizations need for effective AI implementation, and on the design of capability-building initiatives that place human advantage at the heart of human-AI collaboration. David co-founded Polymathmind.ai in 2023.

             Adam Riley                             Dr. David Smith

A List of Participants can be found here.

Dress code is " "Smart Casual"​