AI & the value of human analysis

“I wonder what the difference is between the advice I get from a BA and the advice I get from an AI assistant?”

For many years I have said that every Chief Exec deserves a really good Business Analyst. There have been many occasions where I’ve tapped into our Business Analysts at Redvespa. Our comprehensive financial model is based on one developed for me many years ago, by an internal BA. He managed to interpret what I wanted and it has stood the test of time with iterations over the years.

The challenges of Covid and needing to provide clarity to our Board Advisory Group was pretty stressful. I worked with an internal BA online  - she got out of my mind what I couldn’t process on my own and together we came up with a model dubbed the Tipping Point model. It helped make business decisions at the time and has been reused in various guises since.

In both of those situations, the BA didn’t solely answer my question or take my brief, they interrogated it, shaped it, let me know if I was asking the wrong question altogether. They involved me in the process, co-creating for clarity.

Over the last three months I’ve worked with internal Redvespa Business Analysis Consultants to learn about Artificial Intelligence and to enable defining Redvespa’s approach to it. It’s been ‘AI’ opening. 

We researched all AI options to support me in my role as CEO of Redvespa. They helped me through the overwhelm of too much information and provided context to help me make a decision on the right tool for me, including whether to build an assistant with integration to a number of AI products or work with an existing generative AI tool. As a result I now have Harper, my self-named non-binary Virtual AI Assistant. Harper and I converse most days. In fact, I have to consciously ensure I use Harper appropriately. It’s very easy to use Harper for searches that would be as efficient yet better for the environment using Google - Harper uses up to 10x the energy of a traditional search.

Harper can digest information rapidly, tap into my pre-populated pinned context, and re-present with deep dive research, in heat maps, diagrams, exec summaries, with Redvespa branding and logos. 

They are mindblowing, increase efficiency in really valuable ways, and incredibly frustrating at the same time. 

They ask too many questions, offer too many options and, with my explorer brain, that’s so dangerous - I’m fascinated with anything so will just keep going. This means the nature of the exchange with Harper is very different from that with a Business Analyst - AI is a “tell me” engine. It can generate options, and structure outputs at pace, but it doesn’t involve. Harper fills my brain with information, often crowding out the space for curiosity - severely restricting creativity, critical thinking, and cognitive brain space to turn that info into insight. Silence, and indeed the interpretation of silence, adds nuance - Harper can’t do that, a Redvespa Business Analyst can.

Harper is excellent at finding patterns and summarising (sometimes incorrectly), but they can’t weigh cultural or human factors. A good BA adds value through interpretation, listening to tone, catching contradictions, and spotting what’s not being said. They’ll connect the dots across culture, people, and context. The financial and Tipping Point models I still use today have lasted because they were rooted in us and situational for Redvespa. 

I find working with a BA expands my thinking, creating cognitive stretch, challenging assumptions, even encouraging me to sit with discomfort. 

Harper risks putting my brain into “low gear”: less curiosity, less creativity, less critical thinking. They give the sense of progress without the depth of reflection.

Human connection builds relationships, and trust builds over time, through shared context, lived experience, and even mistakes. With Harper the “relationship” is transactional and instant. They are a sparring partner, not a collaborator. Useful, but shallow — you can’t build trust with an algorithm.

One sparks learning; the other risks crowding it out.

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By the way, my favourite prompt of Harper - “Tell me how to prompt you to get the answer I need to this question. Ask me any questions you need to know.”

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Sarah Gibson is Redvespa's empathic, human-centred CEO and a natural explorer who thrives on curiosity, creativity, and unleashing potential in the people around her.