Why intuition still plays a vital role in a world of AI 

In an age dominated by data, it would be easy to dismiss human intuition as soft, vague, or irrational. Research by the Economist Intelligence Unit in 2014 into how C-suite executives make important decisions revealed a different picture. There was roughly a three-way split between intuition and experience (30%), data and analytics (29%), and advice from others (28%). In our work with executives, we find a similar pattern.

It’s not just in business that intuition comes to the fore. The former world chess champion Garry Kasparov said, “Intuition is the bedrock of our decision-making, especially in the quick-fire decisions that make up our daily lives.” And even at the highest level of human achievement, researchers have found that Nobel Prize-winning scientists rely on intuition to guide their work. As one laureate put it, “the intuition comes first; the logic comes after to explain it.”

Business decisions are often made in environments that are volatile, uncertain,…