What AI can't replace: The judgment to lead

WHAT AI CAN'T REPLACE:

29 Jul 2026 09:31AM

Nanyang Business School postgraduate students are learning to pair technical fluency with strategic thinking and sound decision-making for an AI-enabled workplace.

As artificial intelligence (AI) reshapes how knowledge work is done, the value of human judgment is becoming increasingly important.Professor Goh Kim Huat, associate dean (Graduate Studies) at Nanyang Business School (NBS), Nanyang Technological University (NTU), has seen this shift in his classroom. In his Data Analytics for Decision Making course, the focus has moved beyond using tools to understand what is worth analysing and how business needs can be translated into viable projects.“AI can generate recommendations in seconds,” he said. “The harder question is deciding which recommendations to trust, which risks are acceptable and what direction an organisation should take. Those remain fundamentally human decisions.”

“IN AN AI-AUGMENTED WORK ENVIRONMENT, HUMANS WILL PLAY A GREATER ROLE IN SETTING BUSINESS DIRECTION, MAKING SOUND JUDGMENTS, DRIVING CHANGE AND MOTIVATING CO-WORKERS. THROUGH THE MBA’S LEADING PEOPLE GLOBALLY SEGMENT, NBS HELPS STUDENTS BUILD THE PERSPECTIVE, ADAPTABILITY AND LEADERSHIP CAPABILITIES TO DO JUST THAT.”– PROF GOH KIM HUAT, ASSOCIATE DEAN (GRADUATE STUDIES), NBS