Situational Awareness Is Human. AI Just Helps It Travel.

We often talk about situational awareness as something you can buy and mount on a wall. From years working within critical control rooms, I know that’s not the full picture.

Situational awareness is a shared mental model, a collective understanding of what’s happening, why it matters, and what may happen next. And it’s often fragile.

AI can’t create that understanding on its own. But what it can do, increasingly well I believe, is help that understanding travel across shifts, roles and organisational boundaries and handover points without losing context.

Recent research in emergency management and policing shows AI supporting teams by maintaining continuity: highlighting changes, drawing attention to deviations and reminding people what has already happened, especially in those times when pressure is high.

The human element however, always remains central. People validate, challenge and interpret what AI surfaces, grounding insight in lived operational reality.

So the leadership question for organisations in my opinion now becomes:

Where does shared understanding exist today and where does it quietly fracture as information moves between people and systems?

getITright and its partners are helping to ask and answer this type of questions with our clients.

Contact Us today to see how we can help your organisation get its IT right.