The ISW article series
The first wave opens with three articles on human value, judgment, and readiness. Nana Gregg of Diabsolut makes the case for trust as a practiced skill AI cannot train. Susan Thomas of 10Fold explains why AI increases the need for human review rather than removing it. And Lindy Thompson of Coalescence Cloud argues that AI amplifies an organization's operational foundations, for better or worse, which is why readiness has to come before tools.

A second wave follows later this week, turning from human readiness to implementation, governance, and accountability. More on that as it publishes.

_____________________________________________________________

The Skill AI Can't Train: Why Trust Is the Edge Professional Services Can't Afford to Lose

By: Nana Gregg
Senior Solutions Architect and Freelance Author, Diabsolut

AI is accelerating everything. Proposals move faster. Onboarding is streamlined. Discovery calls are better prepped. For consulting firms and professional services organizations, the productivity gains are real and the pressure to adopt is relentless.
Dashboards don't show the moment a client decides whether they actually trust you.

That moment happens in a conversation, not a workflow. It happens when you acknowledge uncertainty instead of projecting false confidence. When you listen past the stated problem to the one they haven't named yet. When you show up as a person, not a process. No AI tool accelerates that. In fact, the firms leaning hardest into automation risk eroding the judgment they can rely on and a relationship they can count on.

The capability we need to deliberately hone is trust-building as a practiced skill. Not a personality trait. Not a soft afterthought behind certifications and technical depth. A discipline. One that can be taught, developed, and measured by the quality of your client relationships and the durability of your reputation.

What the industry needs to get right over the next 12-18 months is the framework for who we are in an AI-augmented world, not just what we can do faster. That means investing in communication, emotional intelligence, and the kind of credibility that comes from being honest when the answer is hard.

That's exactly why conversations like the ones at International Services Week matter. The firms that will lead aren't the ones who accelerated the most. They're the ones who never lost sight of what acceleration is for … better outcomes for the humans on the other side of the table.

_____________________________________________________________

The Real AI Advantage Is Better Judgment

By: Susan Thomas
CEO, 10Fold

Four years ago, our agency began experimenting with AI in a very practical way: helping us enrich client reporting within MetricsMatter, our online analytics platform. Like many firms, we saw the immediate appeal. AI could analyze results more quickly and turn mundane tasks, such as counting how many feature articles a client earned that month, into a sub-second routine.

At first, the value seemed obvious: speed. Reporting that previously required hours of manual synthesis could be accelerated significantly. Teams could move more quickly from documenting what happened to higher value thinking, including what should happen next.

But we quickly learned something important. AI does not reduce the need for human review. It increases it.

A client report is not just a recap of activity. It is a strategic document. It must connect performance to business objectives, interpret what the numbers mean and provide guidance on next steps. AI can help organize information, but it does not always understand the nuance of a client's priorities, competitive environment, internal politics or executive expectations.

The same is true for written content. AI may reduce writing time, but editing for tone, clarity, buyer needs and authenticity still requires human judgment.

Today, we are using AI in a more sophisticated way: stacking routine tasks into automated, AI-driven processes. For example, chasing edits on a document can become part of a workflow instead of a manual follow-up loop. That removes lower-value work and keeps our teams focused on the business impact clients expect.

That realization changed how we approached AI. We stopped thinking of it as a shortcut and started treating it as a force multiplier. The first draft may come faster, but editing, validation and strategic review matter more than ever. Someone still has to ask: Is this accurate? Is it relevant? Is it useful? Does it reflect what buyers are thinking?

The firms that benefit most from AI will build stronger review processes, ask better questions and use human expertise to turn AI-assisted output into meaningful counsel.

_____________________________________________________________

AI Won't Fix What Your Services Organization Can't See

By: Lindy Thompson
Head of GTM Strategy, Coalescence Cloud

Across professional services, the conversation about AI has shifted from possibility to mandate. Leaders are being asked to move quickly, adopt AI, and demonstrate measurable value.

The risk is that many organizations respond by starting with the tool.

When pressure builds, the natural instinct is to ask: Which AI capability should we deploy? Which workflow should we automate? Which vendor should we choose?

In my experience, those are often the wrong first questions.

AI can accelerate project delivery, improve forecasting, surface risks earlier, and reduce administrative work. But AI does not fix weak operational foundations. It amplifies them.

If delivery data is fragmented across systems, AI will generate recommendations from incomplete information. If project processes vary widely across teams, AI can reinforce inconsistency rather than eliminate it. If governance and accountability are unclear, AI can make decisions appear more credible without making them more correct. This is where judgment matters.

The most successful organizations I've seen don't begin with technology, they begin with readiness. They evaluate whether their data, workflows, governance models, and success metrics are mature enough to support trusted AI adoption, identifying where AI can create measurable value and where human accountability must remain firmly in place. That approach may seem slower, but it ultimately accelerates results because it creates trust.

As professional services firms continue to adopt AI, the winners will be the organizations that understand a simple truth: AI is an accelerator, not a cure. It can make good operations better and smart decisions faster, but it cannot compensate for foundations that were never built.

Technology accelerates progress. Judgment determines whether that momentum produces value.

_______________________________________________________________
AI will keep getting faster. The open question, the one International Services Week exists to ask, is whether the people steering it are getting wiser. We are glad to put Consulting Magazine behind that question. Look for the second wave of ISW articles later this week.