Q49　In the AI Era, Can You Trust Intuition?

The Short Answer

You need both intuition and data. The future is decided by both.

Unpacking the Question

In the AI era, can you trust intuition?
In an age when data underpins every decision,
intuition may look unscientific, a relic of the past.
But I do not see it that way.
True intuition is not a whim.
It is high-speed judgment,
honed through years of experience and failure,
through countless decisions accumulated over time.
Even when it cannot be put into words,
there is a power that senses, "It's this way."
On the other hand, data has great value too.
Data tells us the facts.
It shows us objectively what happened in the past.
AI analyzes that data,
and will uncover trends and possibilities invisible to human eyes.
However, the future is not always determined by extending the past.
New markets.
New businesses.
New value.
These cannot always be found in past data alone.
That is why, in challenges toward the future, intuition sometimes points the way.
What matters is not choosing between data and intuition, one or the other.
It is confirming reality with data, and sensing the future with intuition.
Future Value Theory envisions a division of roles:
analysis to AI, bets on the future to humans.
AI will show us the answer with the highest probability.
But the final step into a future no one has yet walked can only be decided by a human being.

Implications for Management

In AI-era management, what matters is not data versus experience, but combining the two.
Use data to understand reality; use experience and intuition to judge challenges toward the future.
Especially in new ventures and transformations, there are domains that past data alone cannot judge.
Executives need the decision-making strength to understand the data and still step into the future.

How Would You Answer?

When you make the final decision,
do you trust only the data?
Or do you also listen to your own intuition sensing the future?