What Is the UDQ Initiative?
The UDQ Initiative brings together people and organizations committed to helping individuals, institutions, and communities make better decisions.
Advances in artificial intelligence create an unprecedented opportunity to make the power of Decision Quality widely accessible. Intelligent DQ vehicles can help people clarify what matters, develop alternatives, understand uncertainty, reason through tradeoffs, and commit to action—while keeping human decision makers responsible and firmly in the driver’s seat.
Making Universal Decision Quality real requires more than technology. It requires human skills and habits, trusted practices, effective governance, and learning from experience. We connect educators, decision professionals, researchers, technology developers, and organizational leaders to advance these capabilities together.
The UDQ Initiative is a place to explore, experience, contribute, and connect. Whether you want to improve your own decisions, bring Decision Quality into your organization, or help develop the tools and practices that make UDQ possible, we invite you to participate.
Introducing Universal Decision Quality
Hear the vision from Dr. Carl Spetzler.
Carl Spetzler
Decision Professional
Making Decision Quality Accessible Through AI
AI-Enabled Decision Quality Vehicles
Decision Quality provides a proven approach to making better decisions, but applying it has traditionally required specialized expertise, tools, and facilitation.
AI-enabled DQ vehicles offer a new way to make these capabilities more accessible. Like a vehicle that enables people to travel farther than they could on foot, these tools help people navigate complex decisions with greater structure, insight, and rigor.
They can guide decision makers through framing the decision, exploring alternatives, clarifying values, identifying uncertainties, evaluating tradeoffs, and developing a sound basis for action.
The human remains in the driver’s seat.
AI supports the decision process; people retain responsibility for their values, choices, and actions.
Meet Norma: An Early Example
Norma is a prototype AI-enabled DQ vehicle built on decades of Decision Quality science and practice.
It has demonstrated its usefulness in working through personal decisions and is being further developed and tested with business decision cases.
Norma illustrates how AI-enabled tools can support rigorous decision making through an accessible, conversational experience.
Join the UDQ Community
Realizing the potential of Universal Decision Quality will take a community of people with diverse experience, perspectives, and capabilities.
Our goal is to build a collaborative community that advances the understanding, application, and accessibility of Decision Quality. Together, we can share experiences, test new approaches, develop practical tools, and help bring better decision-making capabilities to individuals, organizations, and communities everywhere.
Whether you are a decision professional, educator, researcher, technology developer, organizational leader, or simply interested in making better decisions, we invite you to join us.
Inaugural UDQ Community Town Hall
December 9, 2026 | Zoom
Join us for an initial conversation about the UDQ Initiative, its aspirations, and opportunities for community participation.
Time and Zoom details will be shared with those requesting an invitation.