What capabilities do you have? And what will you need next?

Human capability

• Psychological safety

  Means… Feeling safe to ask questions, challenge ideas, experiment and admit mistakes without fear of embarrassment or punishment.

• Experimentation

  Means… Trying things out on a small scale, learning from the results and adjusting before committing more broadly.

• Dialogue

  Means… Having open, constructive conversations where people can question assumptions, share concerns and learn from different perspectives.

• Confidence calibration

  Means… Matching confidence to actual knowledge and evidence, and recognising when to trust yourself, seek help or question an answer.

• Adaptability

  Means… Adjusting your approach as circumstances, technology and understanding change, without losing sight of what matters.

• Resilience

  Means… Recovering from setbacks, uncertainty and failed experiments, and using them as opportunities to learn.

• Self-awareness

  Means… Recognising your own assumptions, reactions, strengths and blind spots, and how they shape the way you work with AI.

• Feedback seeking

  Means… Actively asking for input, critique and evidence that can improve your thinking, work or decisions.

• Learning from failure

  Means… Understanding what didn't work, why it happened and what to change, rather than simply moving on or assigning blame.

• Sustainable pacing

  Means… Making change at a rate people can absorb, practise and sustain without overwhelming them or compromising the work.

Human capability

• Strategic clarity

  Means… Understanding what the business is trying to achieve, why it matters and how choices about AI support that direction.

• Problem selection

  Means… Identifying which problems are worth solving, rather than adopting technology simply because it is available.

• Premise awareness

  Means… Recognising the assumptions beneath a question, decision or recommendation, and checking whether they are valid.

• Critical thinking

  Means… Examining information, reasoning and evidence rather than accepting an answer simply because it sounds convincing.

• Epistemic discipline

  Means… Being clear about what you know, what you don't know and what you have good reason to believe.

• Verification

  Means… Checking AI-generated information, claims and outputs against reliable evidence before relying on or sharing them.

• Contextual judgement

  Means… Interpreting information in light of the specific circumstances, people, constraints and consequences involved.

• Trade-off judgement

  Means… Weighing competing benefits, costs and risks, and making deliberate choices about what to prioritise or sacrifice.

• Uncertainty management

  Means… Making considered decisions when information is incomplete, outcomes are unpredictable or confidence is limited.

• Confidence calibration

  Means… Knowing how much confidence to place in your own judgement or an AI output, based on the strength of the evidence.

• Strategic selectivity

  Means… Choosing where AI will create meaningful value—and where not using it is the more appropriate choice.

• Decision ownership

  Means… Taking responsibility for decisions, including those informed by AI, and being accountable for their consequences.

• Value-based judgement

  Means… Making choices in line with the organisation's values, principles and responsibilities, not just efficiency or convenience.

• Measurement judgement

  Means… Choosing measures that reflect meaningful business and human outcomes, rather than relying on easy-to-count activity.

Human capability

• Nuanced customer understanding

  Means… Understanding customers' needs, motivations and circumstances beyond what their data or stated preferences alone reveal.

• Interpretation

  Means… Making sense of customer behaviour and feedback in context, rather than treating every signal as self-explanatory.

• Empathy

  Means… Seeing situations from the customer's perspective and recognising how decisions affect their experience.

• Relationship building

  Means… Creating customer relationships through consistent, relevant and trustworthy interactions.

• Trust building

  Means… Earning customer confidence through reliability, transparency and actions that align with promises.

• Feedback judgement

  Means… Interpreting customer feedback thoughtfully, distinguishing meaningful signals from noise and considering whose voices may be missing.

• Exception judgement

  Means… Recognising when a customer's situation needs more than a standard response and deciding when human intervention is appropriate.

• Customer advocacy

  Means… Representing customer needs and interests in business decisions, particularly when those needs may otherwise be overlooked.

• Customer agency

  Means… Ensuring customers have meaningful choice and control over how they interact with the business and its technology.

• Relationship recovery

  Means… Restoring customer trust after a poor experience by addressing the issue and making meaningful changes.

• Cultural/contextual sensitivity

  Means… Recognising how culture, circumstances and context shape customer expectations, communication and behaviour.

• Market interpretation

  Means… Making sense of market signals, customer behaviour and changing conditions to understand what they mean for the business.

Human capability

• Work architecture

  Means… Designing how work is structured, connected and delivered across people, processes and technology.

• Task allocation

  Means… Deciding which tasks should be done by people, AI or a combination of both, based on capability, risk and context.

• Exception judgement

  Means… Recognising when work falls outside expected rules or conditions and deciding how it should be handled.

• Human accountability

  Means… Ensuring a person or role remains responsible for decisions, actions and outcomes, even when technology performs the work.

• Risk judgement

  Means… Assessing potential harms, uncertainties and consequences to determine what level of risk is acceptable and what safeguards are needed.

• Escalation judgement

  Means… Knowing when an issue requires additional expertise, authority or human intervention, and directing it appropriately.

• Reversibility judgement

  Means… Understanding whether a decision or action can be undone, and adjusting the level of scrutiny and control accordingly.

• Information integrity

  Means… Ensuring information remains accurate, complete, consistent and trustworthy as it moves through systems and workflows.

• Regulatory judgement

  Means… Interpreting relevant obligations and requirements in context and deciding how they apply to specific operations and decisions.

• Operational stewardship

  Means… Taking responsibility for the reliable, safe and effective operation of processes and systems over time.

• Resource judgement

  Means… Deciding how to allocate time, people, money and technology to the work that matters most.

• Change execution

  Means… Turning change plans into coordinated action, managing dependencies and ensuring new ways of working become operational.

Human capability

• AI literacy

  Means… Understanding what AI can and cannot do, how it works at a practical level and what that means for using it responsibly.

• AI quality control

  Means… Evaluating AI outputs for accuracy, relevance, completeness and quality before relying on or sharing them.

• Critical thinking

  Means… Questioning information, examining evidence and testing conclusions rather than accepting an answer at face value.

• Domain expertise

  Means… Bringing deep knowledge of a field, its context and its practical realities to the work and decisions AI supports.

• Judgement development

  Means… Building the ability to make sound decisions through experience, reflection, practice and feedback.

• Collaboration

  Means… Working effectively with others, sharing knowledge and combining different skills and perspectives to achieve a common goal.

• Learning agility

  Means… Learning quickly, adapting to new information and applying what you've learned in unfamiliar situations.

• Knowledge transfer

  Means… Sharing expertise and experience in ways that help other people understand and apply it in their own work.

• Metacognition

  Means… Understanding how you think and learn, recognising your own blind spots and adjusting your approach when needed.

• Expertise preservation

  Means… Protecting and developing the knowledge and judgement that people need to retain as tasks and processes become automated.

• Mentoring

  Means… Helping others develop their skills and judgement through guidance, feedback, questions and shared experience.

• Role adaptation

  Means… Adjusting responsibilities and ways of working as technology changes what a role requires and where people add value.

Human capability

• Conviction

  Means… Holding a considered position grounded in evidence, experience and values, while remaining open to being challenged.

• Selectivity

  Means… Choosing what deserves attention, investment and effort—and what to leave out.

• Taste

  Means… Recognising quality, relevance and coherence, and making choices that reflect discernment rather than simply accepting what is available.

• Editorial judgement

  Means… Deciding what to include, exclude, emphasise or refine so that the final work has clarity, purpose and integrity.

• Original thinking

  Means… Developing ideas and perspectives that go beyond existing patterns, familiar answers or readily available outputs.

• Strategic differentiation

  Means… Identifying and building the qualities that make a business meaningfully distinct from its competitors.

• Values-based choice

  Means… Making decisions that reflect what the organisation stands for, including when those choices involve trade-offs.

• Founder/leader agency

  Means… Retaining the ability and authority to shape the direction of the business, rather than allowing technology or external pressures to make choices by default.

• Authenticity

  Means… Ensuring that what the business says, creates and does reflects its actual values, character and commitments.

• Courage

  Means… Being willing to question convention, challenge assumptions and make considered choices even when they involve uncertainty or discomfort.

• Purpose

  Means… Understanding the deeper reason behind the work and using it to guide priorities, decisions and action.

• Meaning-making

  Means… Making sense of experiences, information and change in ways that help people understand what matters and how to respond.

Human capability

• Empathy

  Means… Understanding another person's feelings, needs and perspective, rather than assuming you know what matters to them.

• Care

  Means… Considering people's wellbeing and needs when making decisions, designing experiences and delivering service.

• Relationship building

  Means… Creating and maintaining relationships through trust, communication and consistent, meaningful interactions.

• Relationship recovery

  Means… Rebuilding trust after something has gone wrong by acknowledging the issue, taking responsibility and addressing its impact.

• Exception judgement

  Means… Recognising when a situation falls outside the rules or expected patterns, and knowing when to question, override or escalate an AI recommendation.

• Human override

  Means… Knowing when and how to intervene, change or stop an automated decision or action when human judgement is needed.

• Transparent explanation

  Means… Explaining decisions, processes and the role of AI clearly enough for people to understand what happened and why.

• Customer agency

  Means… Giving customers meaningful choice, control and the ability to influence their own experience.

• Inclusive design judgement

  Means… Recognising whose needs may be overlooked and making design choices that work for people with different abilities, circumstances and experiences.

• Contextual interpretation

  Means… Understanding what a customer's words, actions or circumstances mean in context, rather than interpreting them literally or in isolation.

• Trust repair

  Means… Taking deliberate action to restore confidence after trust has been damaged, through honesty, accountability and changed behaviour.

• Human connection

  Means… Creating a sense of understanding, presence and personal connection that goes beyond completing a transaction.

Human capability

• Human–technology collaboration

  Means… Knowing how to work with technology by defining roles, coordinating contributions and combining human judgement with machine capability.

• Decision-rights design

  Means… Clarifying who has the authority to make, approve, change or challenge decisions across people and systems.

• Governance

  Means… Establishing the principles, policies and processes that guide how technology is used and how risks are managed.

• Accountability

  Means… Taking responsibility for actions, decisions and outcomes, including those supported or generated by AI.

• Oversight

  Means… Maintaining appropriate visibility and supervision of systems to ensure they operate as intended and remain within acceptable boundaries.

• Escalation design

  Means… Defining when an issue needs to be raised, who should handle it and how it moves to the right level of authority.

• Cross-functional collaboration

  Means… Working across teams and disciplines to align decisions, share knowledge and solve problems that no single function can address alone.

• Power awareness

  Means… Recognising how authority, influence and access to information shape decisions, participation and the distribution of benefits and risks.

• Organisational learning

  Means… Turning experience, experiments and feedback into shared knowledge that improves how the organisation works.

• Feedback-loop design

  Means… Creating processes that capture feedback, learn from outcomes and feed those lessons back into decisions and improvements.

• Inclusive transition

  Means… Managing change in ways that consider different people's needs, circumstances and ability to adapt, so no one is unnecessarily left behind.

• Human impact measurement

  Means… Assessing how technology and change affect people's work, wellbeing, agency and experience—not just business performance.

• Capability measurement

  Means… Understanding whether people have developed the knowledge, skills and judgement needed to perform effectively in practice.

• Change leadership

  Means… Helping people understand, navigate and participate in change while maintaining direction, trust and momentum.

• Systems thinking

  Means… Seeing how people, processes, technology, incentives and decisions interact, and how changing one part affects the whole.