Judgment and AI

Asking smarter questions, making better decisions

By Sir Andrew Likierman, Professor of Management Practice at London Business School

Asking AI to write your presentation? Second-guessing your doctor? It’s a big temptation to let AI do the heavy lifting or just the boring stuff. But without using judgment in your questions and answers, your colleagues will know your presentation is AI slop and you could wreck your health.

The message from AI models (technically Large Language Models) is clear, human judgment is crucial.“ The most effective users of AI are those who collaborate with it, leveraging its strengths while compensating for its weaknesses with their own judgment.” (Claude).

So, here’s how to use judgment’s 6 steps.

Knowledge and experience

The machine can’t respond if you don’t tell it what you need and why. Spell things out in more detail than you would to a person, being as specific as possible about why you are asking and what you want, breaking down complex requests into individual ones and being honest rather than coy (“I am a bit overweight”). Don’t use AI for complex medical advice or therapy, it is too difficult to describe all the issues.

If you know more than the machine, frame the question to check what you think you know, (“Is the next train at 15.00?). If the machine knows more than you, frame the question to ask for the information (“When is the next train?”).

Uncertainty needs to be in the open. If you’re not sure about something, say so. Otherwise, you are misleading the machine. In reading the answer, be aware of the signals. “If I indicate uncertainty, assumptions, or limitations, give those significant weight.” (Copilot). If it doesn’t signal, ask for uncertainty levels in your question.

Recognise there is no single answer to a question. Each model is programmed and trained independently. The same question will be answered differently by each model and each version.

Awareness

Trust

Feelings and beliefs

Choice

Delivery

You and AI