Foundation Partner Programme
Help Shape the Future of AI Leadership Assessment
RWA is inviting a small number of organisations to become Foundation Partners for a new Leadership AI Proficiency Assessment.
The assessment measures how leaders exercise judgement, accountability, escalation, evidence evaluation and governance when AI becomes part of workplace decision-making.
Sample — candidate report
AI Leadership Proficiency Report
Executive Summary
/100
Proficiency band
High
Strong judgement and governance behaviours, with opportunities to improve consistency under pressure and in ambiguous situations.
0–20 Foundational 21–40 Developing 41–60 Competent 61–80 High 81–100 Exceptional
Domain scores
AI-Assisted Decision Quality
78 72nd
Governance Judgement
72 63rd
Information Credibility
81 78th
Human Oversight Behaviour
74 68th
Escalation Judgement
76 70th
Percentiles vs. global executive benchmark.
Strengths & development areas
Strengths
- Information verification and source evaluation
- Problem structuring in complex situations
- Proportional escalation of governance concerns
Development areas
- Maintaining calibration under time pressure
- Considering long-term and second-order impacts
- Challenging confident but weak AI outputs
Most leadership assessments were not designed for AI-augmented work.
Traditional leadership assessments usually measure how leaders think, communicate and decide in conventional workplace situations. But today’s leaders increasingly make decisions alongside AI tools, automated recommendations, predictive analytics and machine-generated evidence.
That changes the nature of leadership judgement. The question is no longer simply whether someone can lead. It is whether they can exercise sound, accountable judgement when AI becomes part of the decision-making process.
When should leaders trust AI?
Good leaders need to know when AI outputs are useful, limited, incomplete or misleading.
When should they challenge it?
AI confidence can disguise weak evidence, hidden assumptions or governance risk.
When should they escalate?
AI-assisted decisions often create accountability, compliance, fairness and reputational implications.
Introducing the Leadership AI Proficiency Assessment
The Leadership AI Proficiency Assessment is a purpose-built situational judgement assessment for leaders working in AI-enabled environments.
It presents realistic leadership scenarios where AI influences recommendations, risk, governance obligations, stakeholder impact and decision accountability.
Psychometric expertise
Designed by Rob Williams Assessment, drawing on more than 25 years of assessment design and validation experience.
SJT methodology
Uses situational judgement principles to assess behavioural judgement in realistic leadership contexts.
AI governance focus
Aligned to AI capability, oversight, accountability and responsible decision-making in modern organisations.
What the assessment measures
This is not a generic AI literacy test. It assesses how leaders respond when AI introduces uncertainty, opportunity, risk, conflicting evidence or governance pressure.
Governance Judgement
Making responsible decisions within organisational, legal and ethical frameworks.
Decision Accountability
Maintaining ownership for decisions supported, influenced or accelerated by AI.
Ethical Oversight
Recognising fairness, transparency and human-impact issues in AI-assisted decisions.
Risk & Evidence Evaluation
Evaluating source quality, data reliability, uncertainty and evidence strength.
Stakeholder & Transparency Leadership
Communicating AI-assisted decisions clearly, honestly and appropriately.
Strategic AI Judgement
Balancing innovation, commercial pressure, governance and long-term organisational impact.
Foundation Partners help turn a strong assessment concept into a validated leadership product.
The pilot phase is designed to test scenario realism, reporting value, score interpretation and practical use in real organisations.
Sample — line manager coaching report
AI Leader Proficiency Assessment
Line Manager Coaching Report
percentile
Overall AI leadership judgement is typical of the norm group. Clear strengths in escalation and accountability; development needed in AI risk awareness and principled challenge of AI outputs.
Development priorities
Priority 1 — highest impact
Build AI risk recognition as a habit
5th percentile on AI Risk Awareness. Introduce a standing pre-action check: “Who could be harmed if this output is wrong?” before acting on AI-generated recommendations.
Priority 2
Develop principled challenge of AI outputs
20th percentile. Create low-stakes practice for evaluating and challenging AI-generated work. Normalise challenge as a positive governance behaviour.
Priority 3
Deepen governance literacy
30th percentile. Make AI governance a standing topic in monthly one-to-ones. Build familiarity with the organisation’s AI use policy and authorisation chains.
Signature strengths
Potential blind spots
Under time pressure
May approve AI recommendations without assessing adverse impact or bias risk when deadlines are tight or outputs appear authoritative.
Confident-sounding outputs
More likely than most leaders to accept detailed or high-confidence AI recommendations at face value without seeking additional validation.
What Foundation Partners receive
Early access
Use the assessment before general release and explore how it fits leadership, talent, governance or development priorities.
Input into product design
Provide feedback on scenario realism, reporting usefulness, interpretation, terminology and practical application.
Benchmark insight
Gain early insight into how leaders approach AI-assisted judgement, accountability, evidence quality and escalation.
Preferential commercial terms
Selected Foundation Partners receive preferential terms in exchange for pilot participation, feedback and validation data.
What we ask in return
Foundation Partners help create a more robust, relevant and defensible assessment by contributing practical feedback and anonymised validation data.
- Pilot the assessment with an appropriate leadership group.
- Provide feedback on scenario realism and report usefulness.
- Support validation and benchmarking activity.
- Share anonymised assessment data for research and refinement.
Organisational and participant information is treated confidentially. Any external use of findings would be anonymised and agreed in advance.
Who this is for
The Foundation Partner Programme is particularly relevant for organisations where AI is already influencing decisions, advisory work, people management, governance, risk or client delivery.
Professional services
Consulting, legal, accounting, advisory and transformation firms where AI is reshaping client delivery and decision-making.
Financial services
Banks, insurers, asset managers and regulated organisations where governance, evidence and accountability matter.
Public sector
Government, public agencies and organisations using AI in high-accountability environments.
Large employers
Organisations implementing AI across leadership, HR, operations, risk, transformation or decision-making workflows.
Frequently asked questions
Is this an AI literacy test?
No. The assessment focuses on leadership judgement in AI-assisted decisions, including governance, evidence evaluation, accountability, escalation and transparency.
Who should take part in a pilot?
Senior leaders, partners, managers or decision-makers whose roles already involve AI-enabled work, governance, client delivery, transformation or organisational risk.
What do Foundation Partners receive?
Foundation Partners receive early access, product-design input, initial benchmark insight and preferential commercial terms.
How is pilot data used?
Pilot data is used to refine the assessment, improve reporting and support validation. Any research or external reporting would use anonymised data and be agreed in advance.
Become a Foundation Partner
Foundation Partner places are limited and participation is by application.
If your organisation is investing in leadership capability for an AI-enabled future, we would welcome a conversation.