AI is changing how expertise is recognised, valued and communicated. For experienced leaders, the challenge is not simply learning new tools, but understanding what these shifts mean for your value, direction and future opportunities.
In our recent webinar, Executive Repositioning for an AI Era, we explored this shift on both a professional and a personal level. Hosted by Jacinta Whelan, Partner at Watermark, our guest speaker Sue Cunningham took us through her framework of how to assess how the value in your field is migrating, identify your distinctive human value, build your AI position and define your future value as you enter this new era.
Sue started the session by outlining the three areas she wanted to focus on:
how is AI changing your professional value;
how to work out where your value sits now;
and how to express that position with credibility.
Before diving in, Sue ran a poll to get a sense of how the room was feeling. A significant portion of attendees reflected that they were excited about AI right now, although there was also a degree of concern and caution. Sue emphasised that acknowledging how you feel about AI is part of the leadership shift we need to navigate.
Sue shared some examples of how AI is reshaping both the value of knowledge workers and the shape of senior roles, as they become more interconnected across technology, data, people and strategy. She also highlighted that the context in which these roles are developing reflects a shift from the traditional knowledge economy to an emerging intelligence economy where leadership judgment is valued more highly than sheer production or output.
Sue shared the 4 steps needed to reoreint yourself through this change.
Sue explained that by taking the time to work through these 4 steps, you become not only clearer about what is changing in your field, but you’re able to articulate the value of your current experience and where you can make the greatest contribution moving forward.
She also highlighted that you can strengthen your credibility by being able to explain how, specifically, you use AI and the decisions you have made with it - based on your experience of using it first hand.
Sue closed with her own story. She didn't study this transition - she has lived it. As AI began to reshape the field she'd built her career in, she worked through what it meant for her own value and direction - using the same four steps she'd just taken the room through. The result was a deliberate repositioning: from executive leader navigating uncertainty and change to founder of The Uncertainty Lab, an AI-enabled advisory practice she has built from the ground up over the last 18 months. Her credibility comes from having done the work herself - and that's what she brings to the senior leaders she now works with.
After some Q&A and further discussion, we wrapped up the webinar by reiterating that AI is here and it is not a case of your experience no longer being valued, but how that value has shifted and will continue to evolve as we move further into this new era.
To watch the full recording of the webinar please see video below:
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Additional Resources:
If you would like to follow along, Sue has kindly shared her slides here.
The Reorientation Scan created by Sue Cunningham. If today’s session left you wondering where your own value sits now - and where you may need more clarity before deciding what to pursue, change or make visible - the scan is a useful next step. It takes about five minutes and will give you a clearer sense of where to focus next.
If you would like to work through what this means for you, you can book a confidential Reorientation Conversation with Sue today.
An article published online at Harvard Business Review How C-Suite and Board Roles Are Being Reshaped Around AI by Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic