I didn't study this transition from the outside. I lived it.

Sue Cunningham

Founder and Principal Advisor, The Uncertainty Lab

My story

I've spent my career leading through uncertainty.

After more than two decades leading transformation, crisis response and reform - from bushfires and pandemics to large-scale system change - I thought I understood uncertainty.

Then, in 2023, a small experiment changed my mind. I asked ChatGPT to complete a piece of strategic analysis - work that would normally take me days. It returned an analysis in minutes.

What struck me wasn’t just the speed. It was the sense that something significant had shifted - and that my experience, for the first time, didn’t tell me what to do about it.

In early 2025, I stepped away from executive life to better understand that shift. I studied AI strategy and safety, and began building The Uncertainty Lab as a human-led, AI-enabled business.

I had to decide what machines could do, what I wanted to keep human and how I would work differently. It also meant confronting a personal question: what is my experience worth when AI can do parts of the work I’ve always done?

I created The Uncertainty Lab to help leaders and organisations do that work for themselves: make strategic choices about AI, reconsider how work gets done and lead the changes those choices require. Together, we work through where AI can create value, how to manage the risks and what we want to keep human.

“I don’t remove uncertainty. I help people navigate it - thoughtfully, deliberately and while staying human.”

Experience and perspective

What I bring to this work.

Strategic change leadership. AI expertise. A human-first approach. And the lived experience of redesigning my own work and value in response to AI.

Strategic change leadership

I’ve led strategy, transformation and crisis response in $50M to $3B organisations across health, aged care, community services, emergency management and international development. I’ve secured $500M in government investment, redesigned statewide service models and led international transitions across seven countries.

Through the Black Summer bushfires and COVID-19, I carried responsibility for people, reputation and systems when decisions had to be made without certainty or precedent. I know what it means to make hard decisions, keep services working and bring people through change when time, resources and answers are limited.

B.Eng (Hons), Electrical and Electronic · B. Arts (History major, English minor) · Graduate Diploma in Business Management · GAICD · Former Company Secretary and Chair of a social enterprise board · National Emergency Services Medal

AI expertise built through study and experience

I bring formal study in AI strategy and safety together with the experience of building and running a human-led, AI-enabled business. AI supports my research, analysis, design, client work and operations.

That work involves testing what AI produces, deciding where it is useful and recognising when its answers need to be challenged. I remain responsible for the choices and the work. I bring that experience into the questions facing you and your organisation.

Member of the IEEE P3953 working group - developing a standard for safe, reliable and explainable conversational AI.

Read my AI position · Read my transparency statement

MIT Sloan · Oxford Saïd · INSEAD (Distinction) · Bluedot Impact (AI Transformation and Safety)

A human-first approach

I’ve spent my career in organisations where decisions directly affect people and communities.

As a certified coach and experienced facilitator, I create the conditions for honest conversations. People can think aloud, ask the questions they’ve held back, test assumptions and work through different views about what needs to happen - including what the change means for them and for the organisation.

Certified Master Coach (NLP) · Certified AI Trainer · 25 years’ experience in human-centred and for-purpose organisations

Redesigning my work, value and business in response to AI

I’ve redesigned how I work and how my business operates, re-evaluated what I contribute and reimagined the value I bring. The Uncertainty Lab is the business I’ve built through that process - human-led and AI-enabled. I bring the lived experience of making those changes myself into the work I do with you.

Founder and Principal Advisor, The Uncertainty Lab

Work with me

Let's have a conversation.

What are you working out about AI - in your own role or for your organisation?

I'd welcome the chance to hear what you're facing, explore your questions and see where my support could be useful.

Book a conversation Send an enquiry