The Democratization of Judgment
HARDLY A DAY GOES BY WITHOUT the announcement of a promising new frontier for Artificial Intelligence (AI). From fintech to edtech, what was once fantastically improbable is becoming a commercial reality. At the same time, corporate investments in Big Data and the dividends they yield in terms of consumer insights are trumpeted on a daily basis.
Oddly, we don’t hear much about the demand created by this rising ‘supply’: In a world of Big Data and AI, the demand for sound and distributed judgment is increasing. ‘Qualitative judgment’ — the ability to make a decision based on a personal interpretation of the context and available facts — has never been more important. In this article I will exlain why judgment has become so important, and how to go about enabling it throughout your organization.
The Rising Demand for Judgment
A basic decision process can be deconstructed into four logical steps: collect and organize available data; analyze it for patterns and insights; predict the best possible courses of action; and use judgment to make a final decision. This last step is more important than ever, and there are three main reasons for this.
1. Qualitative judgment is the last preserve of humanity in making decisions.
There is no question that Big Data and AI offer important advances in the realm of management. Already, they are helping organizations analyze their markets and consumers more effectively and
