ALGIM Webinar: Critical Thinking in the Age of AI

This webinar is for Australian Local Government Staff only.

In a world drowning in misinformation and in love with AI, critical thinking is more important than ever.

This presentation will help information professionals sharpen, nurture, and preserve their critical thinking mindset in a world seemingly determined to offload its thinking homework.

In this session Carl will draw from a range of social science perspectives to outline why critical thinking is much harder than you might expect and why most organisations make it much harder still. You’ll learn why we’re all wired to think like lawyers rather than scientists, and why most of us believe we're already above average thinkers.

The session will then introduce a range of tools to unleash your critical thinking, nurture your scepticism, and supercharge your decision-making acumen.

About the Presenter:

Carl Davidson
Chief Curiosity Officer
The Curiosity Company

Carl Davidson is an insights professional with a social scientist’s heart. He has built a distinctive career bridging academia, government policy and commercial settings. In 2006 he founded Research First Ltd and oversaw its growth into one of New Zealand’s most respected insight firms. In 2010 Carl was appointed the Chief Commissioner of the New Zealand Families Commission and tasked with transforming it into a social policy research and evaluation agency. After nearly two decades at Research First, global funding shifts and pandemic disruptions prompted a reset. So in 2025 Carl launched The Curiosity Company:https://www.curiositycompany.co.nz/

In 2023 he was honoured as a Fellow of the Research Association of New Zealand (RANZ) and celebrated alongside Research First for winning the RANZ Market Research Effectiveness Supreme Award that year. In 2023 he was also named as Global Insights250 winner, an award “celebrating the worldwide pioneers, leaders and innovators in market research, data-driven marketing and insights”. The Insight250 presents a unique view into academic, enterprise, agency, technology, media and association data-driven leaders around the globe.