Mark Runnalls

Where AI-enhanced accreditation (currently) sits. A few weeks ago I was presenting ten days of work to a university client – a detailed accreditation methodology built from the ground up. The report was substantial. The analysis was deep. And on the front page, as we always do, there was a disclosure that the deliverable had been produced in part using AI. The client paused. Looked up, and asked: "So why should I pay you for something I could produce myself using Co-Pilot?" I paused too. Not...

Think about the day you qualified. How capable did you actually feel? How much did you really know? Were you confident? Or were you like me, a little terrified, when you walked out with that designation in your hand? And how much of what makes you genuinely valuable today did you learn in the years that followed? The clients you couldn't have handled then. The decisions you now make without thinking. The judgement that only comes from being tested, failing quietly, and finding a better way....

The real bottleneck in accreditation assessment Accreditation is infrastructure. That’s not a metaphor – it’s the World Bank’s conclusion. Its flagship World Development Report, published in December 2025, is the first comprehensive global analysis of what quality standards really do for economies. It names accreditation as one of four pillars of quality infrastructure globally, alongside metrology, conformity assessment, and standardisation. Countries with stronger accreditation systems grow...