By Angus Hay, Founder, Vereus Group Ltd
Why being sceptical about AI is a strength, not a weakness
People are often surprised when I describe myself as an AI sceptic.
I run an AI agency. I build advanced systems for businesses every day. Yet I’m also one of the first to say that AI is being dangerously overestimated in some areas, and misunderstood in others.
Right now, there’s a growing belief that AI can do almost everything. That it’s objective. That it’s a source of truth. That if a system produces an answer, it must be right.
That mindset is where real risk begins.
AI is an incredibly powerful tool, but it is still a tool. And like any tool, it needs to be used in the right way, for the right purpose, with human judgement firmly in the loop.
What AI is genuinely brilliant at
Where AI truly excels is in scale, speed, and pattern recognition.
It can process huge volumes of information in seconds.
It can analyse trends across thousands of documents.
It can surface insights that would take humans days or weeks to uncover.
In business, this makes it exceptional for research, data analysis, workflow automation, forecasting support, content generation, and operational efficiency.
Used properly, AI can dramatically improve how quickly people understand complex situations and act on opportunities.
It doesn’t replace human thinking, it accelerates it.
Where AI still falls short
The problem starts when people expect AI to replace judgement rather than support it.
AI does not truly understand context in the way humans do.
It doesn’t carry responsibility.
It doesn’t grasp nuance, ethics, or consequence.
It predicts based on patterns in data, which means it can be confidently wrong.
This is why using AI as a “source of truth” is dangerous, particularly in areas like legal decisions, financial strategy, healthcare, or major business choices.
It can assist brilliantly.
It should never be the final authority.
What AI absolutely shouldn’t be doing
AI should not be making critical decisions for people.
Not hiring decisions.
Not financial commitments.
Not legal judgements.
Not strategic business calls.
Where it should sit is one step before the decision.
For example, instead of choosing a strategy, AI can:
• gather vast amounts of relevant information
• analyse trends and risks
• compare scenarios
• highlight opportunities and blind spots
• present everything clearly and concisely
Then a human makes the decision, informed, faster, and with better insight.
That’s the sweet spot where AI creates enormous value without creating unnecessary risk.
The future belongs to human-led, AI-powered systems
The most successful AI implementations I’ve seen all share the same principle: humans stay in control.
AI handles the heavy lifting.
People apply judgement, experience, and responsibility.
This balance is what turns AI into a genuine business advantage rather than a liability.
Ironically, the companies rushing to let AI “do everything” are often the ones creating the biggest problems for themselves.
The ones seeing real impact are those using AI to enhance human capability, not replace it.
Why healthy scepticism drives better innovation
Being excited about AI is easy.
Building it responsibly, strategically, and effectively takes discipline.
Questioning what AI can’t do, and shouldn’t do, is what leads to smarter systems, safer adoption, and far better business outcomes.
The future isn’t about trusting AI blindly.
It’s about using it intelligently.
When AI is treated as a powerful assistant rather than an all-knowing authority, it becomes one of the most transformative tools businesses have ever had.
And that’s where innovation creates real impact, without losing control.
www.steeryourbusiness.com/magazine/may-jun-2026
