PwC Critical Thinking & Judgment Certificate

Key claims

• The problem, in PwC’s words: professionals have always built judgment “by doing the work” (researching, analyzing, questioning assumptions, learning from mistakes). As AI takes on those foundational tasks, the apprenticeship path that produced judgment erodes, so it has to be practiced deliberately.
• Scale and timing: a Critical Thinking & Judgment Certificate for more than 85,000 partners and employees across the US, Mexico and PwC’s Acceleration Centers, rolling out from December 2026 with completion targeted by June 2027.
• The framework: a proprietary PwC Critical Thinking & Judgment framework, being validated with academics including professors affiliated with Wharton and Harvard, built on what PwC calls 175 years of “professional skepticism”. It covers establishing context, challenging information and assumptions, and communicating recommendations with accountability.
• The program: a diagnostic scenario (thinking preferences, strengths, gaps) → the framework → masterclass videos with PwC leaders and outside thinkers → personalized simulations tied to each person’s work → on-the-job toolkits, team scenarios and routines.
• Universities: from early 2027 the framework is offered free to any university, and a Student Human Skills Initiative (an extension of PwC’s Human Skills Project) will fund selected professors to build it into introductory courses.

Notable quotes

As AI takes on more of these foundational tasks, it’s changing how people develop the critical thinking and judgment skills that remain essential to quality work and trust.

Yolanda Seals-Coffield · PwC US newsroom · November 9, 2026

Connections

• The institutional version of the argument in I’m Begging You — Never Write With A.I.: if the machine does the reps, the skill atrophies, so the reps have to be manufactured on purpose.
• PwC · Apprenticeship · Judgment · AI and Work