Year: 2026
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Designing your agentic AI system
There’s obviously a lot of talk about Agentic AI right now but the reality that I’ve experienced most in teams is that many of the agents that have been built so far are simple, task focused, sequential automations. There’s nothing wrong with this of course (and it’s a logical place to start) but to paraphrase…
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Using AI to transform client relationships
A couple of weeks ago I ran the first IPA Advanced AI for Account Handlers course and alongside all the more obvious automations and efficiency gains from AI there were some specific techniques we focused on that have much wider application. For strategists, consultants, and anyone interested in how AI can transform managing clients and…
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Cognitive Sovereignty
Cognitive outsourcing (the idea of letting AI do your thinking for you) is being discussed a lot right now. but the term ‘cognitive sovereignty’ is probably a better way to describe the risks involved in this practice because it captures the nuance of how we actually work with AI to get the best from both…
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How AI rewires how we think
‘Players now train to replicate AI’s moves as closely as they can rather than inventing their own, even when the machine’s thinking remains mysterious to them.’ This is a fascinating look at how AI is reshaping how the best Go players in the world improve their skills using AI. After AlphaGo defeated Lee Sedol ten…
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Leading Human/AI Hybrid Teams
For most of human history, leadership has meant one thing – getting the best out of people. But what happens to leadership in an age where hybrid teams of humans and AI agents will increasingly be the norm? It’s a pretty big question. And one that I’ve been working on to understand better (for a…
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Why is Corporate AI Innovation so Hard?
One of the themes I keep coming back to in my workshops on AI, emerging technology and managing change is the risk of looking at the new through the lens of the old. Of getting stuck in optimising existing systems or ways of thinking, and neglecting the opportunity that comes from reinventing and rethinking at a more…
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Organisational knowledge in the age of AI
I’m not a fan of trendy neologisms like ‘prompt engineering’. Marvin Minsky once described how ‘suitcase words’ (high-level and abstract terms) often contain a variety of different, sometimes jumbled meanings. And there’s a lot of suitcase words around AI right now. But confused as they might be, these terms can also carry with them a…
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The value of craft in the age of Agentic AI
Following the recent release of Claude’s latest model Scott White, Anthropic’s Head of Product for Enterprise, said that he thought we were moving into an era of ‘vibe working’. If vibe-coding was about describing the thing you’d like to build and letting AI write the code, vibe-working is the idea that humans can define outcomes and let…
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A practical process for using AI in scenario mapping
Since I did my initial post on using AI in scenario planning I’ve been doing more sessions with clients where we use AI engines to both map out potential futures and paths forward, and also to stress-test strategies. Scenario mapping is a really undervalued use of AI tools IMHO and there’s something about the ability to bring…
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The Future of Learning and Development
Since leadership training is a part of what I do my network and reading overlaps somewhat with the L & D community, where there is currently something of an existential debate going on about the future of learning. In fairness this is probably justified since AI is about to steamroller through traditional L & D…