Advisor to CEOs, boards and leaders on AI and human judgement

AI is not coming for your job. It is coming for your judgement.

Most leaders are not behind on AI adoption. They are behind on deciding which decisions the machines may make, who can stop them, and what their people must remain able to do.

A second opinion on your AI strategy Advisory for CEOs, boards and leaders Keynotes

Years of fieldwork

200+

Organisations, 30+ countries

367

Studies checked

811

Questions mapped

Author of SuperSkills (Kogan Page). Founded EtonX, acquired by Eton College. Led international growth at Quizlet across more than 60 countries. Where the evidence contradicts the argument, it stays published.

In brief

Twenty years building the technology that changed how people work. Then seven years studying what it did to them. I am not theorising about the shift; I helped build a piece of it, then went and studied what happened next.

The book is for everyone. The talks are for senior rooms. The advice is for chief executives. I do not think AI is the biggest story of our time.
I think what it does to human capability is.

The idea

Design, or drift.

Most organisations are handing judgement to AI without deciding to. Drift is what happens by default, one convenient shortcut at a time. Design is what you choose on purpose.

The deeper challenge is judgement allocation: deciding which humans decide what, and where.

Drift

Capability leaks out of the building.

New joiners prompt past the hard parts. Senior judgement stops being built. No one chose it. It accrued.

Design

You decide where humans stay.

At the start, the middle and the end of the work. Then you build the skills that make the choice pay off.

Rahim Hirji on stage, a slide behind him contrasting a drifting raft with a designed sailboat — Drift, or design. On stage.

Everyone says "keep a human in the loop." Nobody tells you which human, with which skills, at which point in the work. That is the work I do with leadership teams.

The seven SuperSkills are the capabilities that make design pay off. They are the book; the research is underneath. Read the research →

What should our board be asking about AI?Is deskilling real?How do juniors become senior?

"A boat doesn't choose where it goes. The people in it do."

From SuperSkills

The evidence underneath

Everything here is checkable. Including where it disagrees with me.

367 studies, each with what it does not support. 811 questions, with the ones I cannot answer yet left visible. Where the evidence contradicts the argument, it stays published. All the research →

The argument, at length

Out now

SuperSkills

The argument in full: why AI comes for your judgement, not your job, and the seven capabilities that protect it. Published by Kogan Page, part of Hachette UK. Translations under way; audiobook due in 2027.

Order the book

Chief executives read it and hand it to their teams. Bulk copies and branded editions for a leadership team or an event: ask.

Advisory

The decisions AI puts on a chief executive’s desk, and an independent view of them.

I sell no software, take no vendor’s money and will not build anything, so nothing in the advice depends on what you decide. I have run, grown, bought and advised businesses with AI in them. Every engagement ends in something written that a board can hold you to.

Read

A second opinion on your AI strategy

Send me the strategy you have built and two working days later you have an independent written view: where you are not in control, which decisions machines are already making in your name, who can stop them, and how you would find out if one went wrong. A fixed fee, agreed before you send anything. Send it →

Decide

Rules Before Tools

One day with the executive team. The rules, written in the room’s own words, before another tool is bought: what the machines may do, who can stop each one, and how the organisation would know if it went wrong. The session →

Measure

The Drift versus Design review

Across a function or the whole organisation. A written view of where you are designing the relationship between your people and these systems, and where you are drifting into one. The instrument →

Partner

Standing advisor

Monthly. The trusted second opinion as the decisions arrive, and a written brief each month on what has changed and what it means for you. A handful at a time, never more. How it works →

Assignments are scoped, and most are five-figure. Boards start on the board advisory page; everyone else on advisory.

Keynotes

The same argument, in front of your senior people.

Rahim Hirji on the main stage at the CIPD Festival of Work

▶ Watch the showreel · Drift versus Design

Signature keynote

Drift versus Design

It shows which of two modes your organisation is running, then hands you the controls. Most drift. The ones that design build capability on purpose, and can prove it.

All three talks →

Most keynotes come in around £10,000. What moves it: the time I commit, travel, how full the diary is that month, and how far the talk is built for your room. What moves the number · Download the one-page brief

Built for an all-hands, a leadership offsite or a board day rather than a conference slot. The argument holds across rooms; the evidence that carries it changes with who is sitting in them. There are versions built for schools, universities and education leaders, for HR and CHRO conferences, for boards and leadership offsites, for early careers and graduate talent, and for corporate conferences.

In their words

"Rahim maps the exact capabilities we need to partner with machines without surrendering our authorship."

Karim LakhaniHarvard Business School, co-author of Competing in the Age of AI

"He handled a demanding room and left them with something they could act on rather than only something to think about."

Stuart FosterHead of Coverage, UK Corporate Banking, Barclays

"If you are thinking about what happens to leadership in the age of AI, and what we need beyond our tech and soft skills, then you need to read this book."

Reshma Aziz KhanFacilitator, UPEACE Centre for Executive Education; quoted the book on stage at Ars Electronica 2026

The evidence

On stage at
CIPD Festival of Work · London Tech Week · Korn Ferry · Imperial College · Dubai Arbitration Week · Echo360 · the full record →

Endorsed by

Karim Lakhani, Harvard Business School
David Rowan, founding Editor-in-Chief, WIRED UK
David Gareth Thomas, formerly Chief People Officer, HSBC APAC
Professor Alnoor Bhimani, LSE
Sherry Coutu CBE, entrepreneur and non-executive director

All fourteen endorsements →

Enquire

Tell me what you are deciding.

A strategy to read, a board to brief, a room to speak to. Every enquiry is read personally. Expect a reply within 24 hours.

Send an enquiry

Prefer to talk it through first? Book a 30-minute call

Taking on a handful of advisory relationships, and selected keynotes, for 2026 and 2027. · rahim@thesuperskills.com