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KEYNOTE 04AI / TRIAL

AI on Trial: When Artificial Intelligence Helps Save a Project, and When It Helps Bury One

The practitioner's verdict on AI for delivery, hype stripped out.

AI is being sold to project teams as a cure. Brian has spent 30 years rescuing projects, and he asks the harder question: does this tool help you see trouble earlier, or does it help you look green while you sink? In this talk he puts AI on trial, as the practitioner-judge, weighing real evidence instead of vendor decks. He walks through where AI earns its place in delivery and recovery, where it amplifies the Suppression Factors, and the questions a leader should ask before trusting a tool with a project that can't afford to fail.

WHAT YOU LEAVE WITH
  • A practitioner's test for when AI helps a project and when it hurts
  • How AI can amplify denial, fear, and bad incentives if you let it
  • The questions to ask a vendor before trusting a tool with critical delivery
  • Where AI fits in assessment, recovery, and prevention, honestly scoped
FORMATS
Modular by designFull 45-minute keynote15-minute insert for another talkLinkedIn and podcast content series off the same spine
SAMPLE OUTLINE
  1. 01The open: every vendor says their AI will save your projects
  2. 02The charge: does it help you see trouble, or hide it?
  3. 03For the defense: where AI genuinely helps (assessment, pattern-spotting, recovery)
  4. 04For the prosecution: automated denial, false confidence, bad incentives
  5. 05The practitioner's test: what to ask before you trust a tool
  6. 06The verdict, scoped by audience: regulated industries versus vendor floors
  7. 07Close: the judgment call AI can't make for you

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