Written by Rahim Hirji, author of SuperSkills (Kogan Page, 2026), founder of The SuperSkills Intelligence Company. The research is published openly with every source graded. Found an error? Tell me and it is corrected on the page.
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Available in Shanghai and across ChinaThis is where the work started. Rahim founded EtonX in China, partnering with schools in Shanghai and across the country, and spent years on the question of how people actually acquire capability. That turned out to be the thing AI quietly interferes with.
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A feel for the room before you put me in front of yours.
Rahim founded EtonX, the online learning venture of Eton College, and began the business in China, partnering with schools in Shanghai and across the country. He has presented in China, and he later built EtonX operations in India as well. Before that he led Quizlet's international expansion across sixty countries.
That background is the reason the argument sounds the way it does. Twenty years spent on how people acquire capability, followed by a technology that removes the tasks through which they acquired it. The argument rests on research across more than 200 organisations in 30 countries since 2019, published openly and in full at the research estate, where every source is graded and the open questions stay visible.
AI rarely takes a whole job. It takes the first draft, the initial analysis, the routine review. Those were also the tasks through which people built the judgement that made them senior. The work still ships, the output often improves, and nothing triggers an alarm.
The question for a leadership team is therefore about mode rather than adoption. Is the organisation drifting into AI through a thousand small reasonable decisions nobody quite made, or designing it by deciding in advance where human judgement has to remain? Drift asks nothing of you. That is what makes it the default.
The evidence is more interesting than either the hype or the doom. Across 106 experiments, human and AI combinations performed worse on average than the better of human alone or AI alone, with the losses concentrated in decision-making. Clinicians whose unassisted detection rate fell after AI exposure. Students whose grades rose 48 per cent with an AI tutor and fell 17 per cent below a control group once it was removed. None of that says do not use AI. It says the design of the relationship decides the outcome.
No Chinese official statistic on AI adoption or AI-related employment is quoted here, because none has been verified at this site's standard, which is that the issuing body's own document was read at its own page. Where that has not been done, nothing is quoted. Saying so is more useful to a Shanghai audience than a number of unknown provenance would be.
What is verified, and travels, is the international shape. Japan's national survey of 22,000 employees found employer AI use at 12.9 per cent. Korea measured actual firm adoption at 2.7 per cent against 38.8 per cent of jobs scored as technically automatable. Singapore's regulator has written the loss of entry-level training grounds into national guidance. The regional account is at AI and work in Asia.
Multinational leadership teams, regional headquarters, international schools and education groups, and corporate conferences in Shanghai and elsewhere in China. Delivery is in English only. Simultaneous interpretation is arranged by the host where required. Rahim travels from London, and where travel is not practical the same session is delivered online. He can travel to the region or deliver virtually across all time zones.
Three keynotes, all versions of one argument. Drift vs Design is the signature talk for boards and executive teams. We Are Superheroes covers the seven human skills that grow more valuable as the tools spread. WTH, What the Human is a live judgement test for boards, run in the room, December to March only. Full descriptions are at keynotes.
A Chinese-language summary of this argument is at the Chinese page, published in Chinese because the reader reads Chinese, not because the keynote is delivered in it.
Rahim Hirji speaks in Shanghai in English on AI, work and human judgement. He is the author of SuperSkills (Kogan Page, 2026) and founded EtonX, the online learning venture of Eton College, starting that business in China and partnering with schools in Shanghai and across the country. Simultaneous interpretation is arranged by the host where required.
No. No Chinese official statistic on AI adoption or employment is quoted anywhere on this site, because none has been verified at the issuing body's own page, which is this site's standard. That gap is stated openly rather than filled with figures of unknown provenance. The verified international material, from Japan, Korea and Singapore, is used instead.
He started EtonX in China, partnering with schools in Shanghai and across the country, before Eton College acquired the business, and he has presented in China. Earlier he led Quizlet's international expansion across sixty countries.
Three to six months ahead for an in-person date in Shanghai. Shorter is often possible for a virtual session, and sometimes in person where the diary is free and the talk already exists in the form you need. Ask earlier rather than later. There is one of him, he carries advisory clients and other commitments alongside the speaking, so not every date can be taken.
Fees are not published, and not withheld to create a negotiation. What they depend on is whether the talk already exists in the form you want or has to be built for your audience, and how much preparation the brief implies. Tell us the room, the date, the audience and what you need them to do differently, and you will get a number quickly. Schools, universities and charities are quoted differently. On travel there is one rule: outside London you book it and you pay it, because your rates are better than his and nobody is out of pocket waiting on a reimbursement. From London Heathrow to Shanghai that means a business-class fare, arrival the night before, and normally two nights in a standard room at or near the venue. A London booking carries no travel, accommodation or expenses at all.
When the decision has already been made and the session exists to announce it. When the audience has no authority over their own work, because the talk asks them to decide which repetitions are worth keeping. When the slot runs under twenty-five minutes, because the turn needs setting up. And when the session follows a vendor pitch, since order matters more than programmes usually assume. Where the conditions are wrong we will say so, and sometimes that means reshaping the session. Occasionally it means recommending somebody else.
Written by Rahim Hirji, author of SuperSkills (Kogan Page, 2026), founder of The SuperSkills Intelligence Company. The research is published openly with every source graded. Found an error? Tell me and it is corrected on the page.
Tell me the room, the date and the shift you need. A reply within 24 hours.
Part of speaking across Asia. See also Hong Kong and Singapore. Browse every topic, audience and region.
No enquiry today, or not yet the right time? The weekly letter is the low-commitment version of the same argument. Weekly essays on AI, capability and the future of work. Read by 25,000 people, every week since 2017. Free, and one click to stop.
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