Judgement, agency and staying human.

Sue Cunningham

AI advisor · Former executive · Lifelong learner

I bring strategy, change leadership and the human side of AI together - helping people make deliberate choices about their work and the organisations they lead.

Book a conversation Read my AI position

My story

I've spent my career leading through uncertainty.

From bushfires and pandemics to organisational reform, I've had to make decisions when the stakes were real and the answers weren't clear.

In 2023, I asked ChatGPT to help with a piece of strategic analysis - work that would normally take me days. The speed caught my attention. The bigger question stayed with me: what did this mean for the work I'd spent my career doing, and for the organisations I was helping to lead?

In early 2025, I stepped away from executive life to explore that properly. I studied AI strategy and safety, and used AI to help me design and establish 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?

Twenty-five years of leading organisations gave me a way to question the answers AI offered - and to see what they might mean for people, strategy and the way work gets done. But knowing how to lead did not spare me the need to learn, experiment, make mistakes and redesign my own work.

I want people, and organisations that care about people, to have the understanding, confidence and judgement to make their own choices. To explore what AI makes possible, take the risks seriously and lead the change in a way that remains 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 fluency. A human-first approach. And the lived experience of redesigning my own work and value in response to AI.

Twenty-five years
leading change

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 the pressure to improve performance and bring people with you 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 fluency built through study and experience

I've studied AI strategy and safety, and used AI to help establish a human-led, AI-enabled business. AI helps me think, design and run the practice - from research and analysis to client work and operations.

That gives me firsthand experience of deciding what to hand over, what to question and where human judgement remains essential. I bring both the formal learning and the experience of applying it to real work.

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)

Understanding the human experience of change

I've spent my career working in human-centred organisations. As a certified coach and experienced facilitator, I'm interested in how people think, make decisions and respond when familiar ways of working are changing.

People need room to explore what a change means for them, ask the questions they haven't been able to ask and think through the possibilities together. I create that space, with enough support to be honest and enough challenge to examine what we might be missing.

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

Rethinking my own work and value in response to AI

I’ve redesigned how I work, re-evaluated what I contribute and reimagined the value I bring. Building a human-led, AI-enabled business has meant making my own choices about what machines can do and what I want to keep human.

I understand that AI is personal as well as organisational. I bring that lived experience into the work I do with you.

Founder and Principal Advisor, The Uncertainty Lab

A little more about me.

I’m a big-picture thinker. I love learning and writing, and I enjoy working through ideas with other people - talking, collaborating, brainstorming and seeing what takes shape. I’m currently writing a book about how to lead yourself through uncertainty, a question I’ve explored for most of my working life.

I’m also interested in the connection between the mind and body, and what demanding work and change ask of us as humans. AI is personal as well as organisational: it asks us to rethink our expertise, our contribution and sometimes our sense of who we are.

I live in Melbourne, Australia. Away from work, you’ll find me reading, spending time in nature or with my Burmese cats - or eating dark chocolate.

Work with me

Let's meet.

What do you need to work out about AI - for yourself or your organisation?

Bring the challenge you're facing. We'll explore what needs attention and practical options for moving forward.

Book a conversation Send an enquiry