My recent free webinar Leadership in the Age of AI: Critical Thinking, Judgement and Risk with Michael Schlosser of Sim-X Strategy got me thinking about what has changed for internal advisers when it comes to the art of influencing.

Today, leaders have more advice available to them in seconds than they have ever had before. Which begs the question: Do leaders still need internal advisers?

My answer is yes, more than ever. Why? Because of the risks posed by the less-than-truly intelligent adviser in AI. AI is only predictive, as it lacks implicit understanding of context and emotion. And this preserves the opportunity for internal advisers to become trusted advisers in the age of AI.

AI’s shortcomings alone however won’t make the path to becoming a trusted adviser shorter. As I explain in my Trusted Adviser Program for internal advisers, which I’ve been running for over a decade, the quality of your advice is both an opportunity and a barrier to being a trusted adviser because if you are not considered and careful, your advice may be indecipherable, or no better than painfully decipherable. Plus, being a provider of reliable advice is not good enough; your advice needs to be more valuable insights than vanilla reliability.

Now, in the age of AI, it’s not purely good advice delivered well that earns advisers the desired reputation of trusted adviser: It is judgement that they need to be very, very good at. Good judgement enables you to assess context and the emotions involved in decision making, as well as AI outputs and the AI-based outputs of others, to tailor advice for leaders that helps them see past the recommendations generated by AI. Over the coming weeks, I will explain more about this challenge and how to adapt my Pathfinder Model for persuasion and influence to work for you in the age of AI.

My tip: Check out the webinar I hosted with Michael Schlosser of Sim-X Strategy.

My Focus: Helping leaders develop critical thinking skills to enhance judgement in the age of AI. To that point, I am hosting a free webinar AI Adoption: Preparing Leaders to Seize Opportunities and Manage Risks with tech guru Dr John Burgin of Shift127 focused on developing those skills for leaders making decisions in and around AI adoption. It’s on Friday  17 July from 12pm AEST and to enrol, simply click here.