Role of human intuition in digital trust

Building on my post from yesterday with a real world example. In my previous role, I came across an alert that had been dismissed by someone with more experience in the field than I have. It caught my eye and my gut told me to take a second look, so I did. What I found was pretty startling—a customer of ours had actually fallen victim to CVE-2021-31166, a particularly nasty Windows HTTP Protocol Stack Remote Code Execution Vulnerability. Although the alert was initially dismissed, my intuition and analytical mindset kicked in. I reopened it, conducted some deep dives, and correlated various data points. Then our penetration tester was able to recreate the exploit to verify it. Let's just say, it was a moment of realization for everyone involved. Here's why. Trust Your Analytical Skills: Always remember, the tools we use are just that—tools. They assist but can't replace human analytical power. Look beyond the alert; dissect it to understand the underlying behavior. If something feels off, it probably is. Don't Underestimate Intuition: Years of reading logs, monitoring alerts, and understanding patterns develop an intuition that you should not underestimate. It's the subliminal sum of all your analytical skills and experiences. Listen to it. Master Data Correlation: In this case, disparate pieces of information might not have seemed alarming individually. However, when looked at holistically, they painted a very different picture. Learning how to correlate data efficiently can sometimes make all the difference between identifying a false alarm and a real threat. This incident was a striking lesson in the importance of not just relying on automated systems or more experienced judgment but also valuing our own analytical skills, intuition, and data correlation abilities. It's a blend of these skillsets that can often make the crucial difference in threat detection and incident response

❌ NEVER trust your gut ✅ ONLY trust the data That's the cardinal rule I was taught when I entered the CRO and A/B testing space over a decade ago. It has NOT served me well! And I've spent the last 10+ years attempting to un-learn this rule. . . When I stopped ignoring my gut, I started winning more tests 🧠 📈 Because I realized, that while a data-driven approach is key, numbers are not always the best predictors of success. In fact, I've observed that some of the smartest experimenters aren't the ones obsessing over spreadsheets and numbers. They're the ones making decisive, gut-driven choices. They see patterns and feel the pulse of what works. They trust themselves and use the data to help steer decisions. Now, more than ever, I feel trusting your gut is key. 🔑 🤖 As AI begins to encroach on the experimentation space, our own innate understanding of human emotions will become our collective super power. While AI may be able to better analyze data, predict behavior, and optimize faster, it can't replace human intuition. And while AI may become better able to optimize for clicks, it won't truly understand why people buy. Yes, AI will likely surpass us in logic, analysis, and number-crunching power. But it will never have our instincts, emotional intelligence, or ability to sense what truly resonates with other humans. These qualities are becoming our competitive edge. ➡️ Our feelings are what make us irreplaceable. ⬅️ So AI gets smarter, it's our place to get more human. As algorithms evolve, we need to evolve our intuition. And as machines begin to make eerily accurate predictions, we need to trust in our own knowing. In a world where AI can optimize everything, our gut instincts may be our greatest competitive advantage. What are your thoughts? As AI evolves, how do you plan to balance taking a data-driven approach with trusting your gut feelings? Share your thoughts below ⬇️ #optimization #abtesting #experimentation #ai #trustyourgut

True story, and there's an important lesson in it. 👇 Cybersecurity is about trust, and trust is complicated. Right? Yesterday, I met up with some wonderful cybersecurity friends in London. We shared drinks, swapped stories from around the world, and had a much-needed catch-up. On my way home, I was approached by an elderly lady. She was small, vulnerable, and visibly upset. She told me she’d spent hours at Moorfields (eye) Hospital, hadn’t eaten for hours, and had left her handbag on a bus as she made her way home. She needed £17.60 to get home to Weybridge, which isn't that far from where I live. She clung to my arm as I walked to a cashpoint and gave her some money — enough for food and her train. She hugged me, asked my name, and set off. She told me she didn't need to come with me towards Waterloo, the station we both needed to go to in order to get home. But as she disappeared into the crowd, something didn’t feel right. The story had holes. My instincts kicked in. I felt tricked. Stupid, even. And yet — that’s the essence of trust, isn’t it? We build it through emotion, through signals, through stories. Sometimes we’re right. Sometimes we’re wrong. And in our line of work — cybersecurity — we ask people to “trust less” and “verify more.” But it’s not always that simple, is it? Whether it’s phishing emails, deepfakes, or social engineering in person, manipulation thrives on empathy. On urgency. On human nature. I still don’t know whether she truly needed help or ran a very convincing con. But I do know this: if someone like me — trained to detect deception — can question myself after an encounter like that, imagine how vulnerable the average person is in a digital world full of invisible threats. This wasn’t just a life moment — it was a cyber lesson, too. Trust is both our greatest strength and our greatest vulnerability. And building digital trust starts with understanding the human one. ===== Now it's over to you, tell me your thoughts on this. Have you ever had a similar experience? #Cybersecurity #DigitalTrust #HumanNature #SocialEngineering #CyberAwareness #Leadership

Digital vs Embodied Knowing During a Norwegian language class, we were sharing what we had done over the weekend. One friend said he had gone to the forest with his family to pick mushrooms. When I asked how he could tell which ones were safe to eat, he smiled and said there’s an app for that, you just scan the mushroom, and the app tells you whether it’s edible or poisonous. His answer reminded me of my mother in Nepal, who also goes to the forest to collect mushrooms. She never studied biology, never used a smartphone app, and yet she knows exactly which mushrooms are safe. When I asked her the same question years ago, she laughed and said, “We just know.” Her knowledge comes from years of walking the same forest paths, observing, smelling, touching — an embodied familiarity that cannot be easily explained, yet rarely fails. That small contrast stayed with me: my friend’s digital knowing versus my mother’s embodied knowing. Both are forms of knowledge, one mediated by algorithms, the other by experience. Yet today, we often treat digital knowledge as more reliable, more modern, more scientific. The app, not the body, becomes the authority. My mother’s knowledge is not unscientific; it is pre-scientific. It is the ground from which science itself grows. This small story also says something larger about who we are becoming in the digital age. When we trust the app more than our senses, or the algorithm more than experience, we subtly shift our agency. We begin to act not from our lived intuition but from a mediated instruction. Our identity as knowers as beings who interpret and respond to the world becomes increasingly entangled with the technologies that guide us. This is not necessarily a loss, but it does ask for responsibility. We need to remain aware of how digital systems shape not only what we know, but how we come to know. My mother’s knowing and my friend’s app are not opposites, but reminders of two ways of being in the world; one rooted in the body, the other in the network. The challenge of being digital, perhaps, is learning how to hold both: to stay connected to our embodied sense of life even as we navigate the expanding intelligence of our tools..🤔🤔 #beingdigital #identity #agency #responsibility #knowledge #storytelling

With the advent of generative AI there’s been a lot of discussion about the role of “human in the loop” (HITL) models. At Mineral, we’ve been doing work in this area, and I’m often asked how long we think HITL will be relevant. So I thought I’d share a few thoughts here. HITL is not a new concept. It was originally coined in the field of military aviation and aerospace, and referred to the integration of human decision-making into automated systems. Today, it’s expanded to be a cornerstone in the AI discussion, particularly in fields like ours — HR & Compliance — where trust and accuracy matters. At its core, HITL is a design philosophy that involves human intelligence at critical stages of AI operations. It's not just about having a person oversee AI; it's about creating a collaborative environment where human expertise and AI's computational power work in tandem. HITL is a key part of our AI strategy at Mineral, and as we think about the value and longevity of HITL, we think about two distinct purposes it serves. The first is technical. Our domain is a complex arena – federal, state, and local regulation and compliance. As good as AI has become, our tests have shown that it’s still not capable of fully navigating this landscape, and is unlikely to get there soon. HITL plays a critical role in catching and correcting errors and ambiguities, and ensuring the accuracy of the output, so clients can rely on the guidance we give. The second is cultural. This aspect of HITL is both more intuitive and less understood. Even if AI is capable of providing correct information, HITL plays a critical role in establishing trust in a cultural sense. Think about the last time you went on an amusement park ride. Odds are a human operator tugged on your seatbelt to ensure it was fastened. There’s no technical reason why a human needs to do this work — a machine could do it better. But culturally we feel better knowing a human has confirmed we’re safe. The same is true in HR and compliance. Whether they’re starting from scratch or already have an instinct on how to proceed, clients often want confirmation from a human expert that they’re on the right track. In the world of AI, this cultural value of having a human in the loop is likely to extend beyond the technical value. So how long will HITL will be relevant? For a long time, and probably even past the point at which AI’s capabilities equal or surpass our own. As we continue to innovate, the importance of #HITL in areas like this is more evident than ever. It represents a balanced approach to AI, acknowledging that while AI can process data at an unprecedented scale, human insight, empathy, and ethics are irreplaceable. In this partnership, #AI amplifies our capabilities, and we guide it to make sure it serves the greater good. That’s a recipe for long-term success. I’d love to hear from you: how do you see human in the loop systems evolving?

Reflecting on my journey over the last year, while I was part of an agile transformation in an organization within semiconductor domain. From this experience, here are 6 key lessons I've learned about the irreplaceable power of human intuition, especially when AI falls short: 1. AI Guides, Humans Navigate – AI can offer data-driven insights, but human intuition steers the direction when the path isn’t clear. 2. Creativity Over Calculation – High-pressure situations often require innovative solutions that transcend mere algorithms. 3. Empathy Leads to Engagement – Understanding human emotions and team dynamics can bridge the gaps left by AI's analytical focus. 4. Nuanced Decision-Making – Complex decision-making often involves shades of grey that only human intuition can interpret. 5. Contextual Understanding – Human intuition reads between the lines, especially in environments nuanced by ever-shifting variables. 6. Cultural Sensitivities – Embracing and understanding diverse cultures demands the kind of sensitivity and adaptability that AI can't replicate. What’s one lesson you’ve learned recently that made a difference? Let’s share insights #AgileTransformation #HumanIntuition #ArtificialIntelligence #Leadership #Creativity #Empathy #DecisionMaking #CulturalSensitivity #TeamDynamics #Innovation #PersonalGrowth #ContinuousLearning #semiconductor