Ep 3 | ProVerum: Why AI Won't Replace Judgment in a Regulated Industry

Episode three of The Tomorrow People features Gordon Crowley, Chief Operating Officer at ProVerum, and Amy Murr, HR Business Partner at ProVerum. Gordon has spent close to thirty years in medical devices, taking products from concept through to commercialisation and acquisition at Mednova, Abbott and Novate. ProVerum's ProV device has received FDA approval and is now selling in the United States. Amy joined ProVerum this year from Australia, bringing twenty years in HR across global mining and professional services, and is building the company's team across Galway, Dublin and Minnesota. The host is Deirdre Finnerty, Director of Recruitment and Talent HERO Recruitment.

Episode three of The Tomorrow People asks what a career in medical devices really teaches you, and what building a company asks of the people inside it. Gordon Crowley and Amy Murr of ProVerum discuss what a multinational gives you that a start-up cannot and the reverse, why the anxiety about AI may be aimed at the wrong target, why a culture you do not design forms anyway, what an AI-polished CV tells an employer, what early-career professionals lose by not being in the room, and why contracting has become a deliberate strategic choice in the medical device industry.

No, and the reason is structural rather than reassuring. On episode three of The Tomorrow People, Gordon Crowley, Chief Operating Officer at ProVerum, opens with a challenge: "The anxiety about AI is justified. But I think it might be aimed at the wrong target." His reasoning: "In the medical device industry, AI isn't going to replace human judgment. And it isn't going to, because the regulatory framework won't allow it. You need, as a company, to explain and defend your output." The risk, in his view, sits elsewhere: "It's not the tool we should be anxious about. It's how we learn to use the tool, and the guardrails we put around it."

Both, in that order. On episode three of The Tomorrow People, Gordon Crowley, Chief Operating Officer at ProVerum, sets out the trade: "If a large company gives you systems and frameworks, a small company gives you first-principles thinking. There's no SOP, no manual, no divisional subcommittee to escalate to. You're driving the train and laying the tracks at the same time." He is candid about the risk of staying too long in the larger one: "You can get comfortable. The system can carry you, and you can end up executing more than deciding." His advice: "Go to a bigger company first. See what good looks like, build a good technical foundation, then go to a start-up and take that knowledge somewhere you can really have an influence."

Not if you want it to stand out. On episode three of The Tomorrow People, Gordon Crowley, Chief Operating Officer at ProVerum, explains what a CV has always told him: "I loved CVs that were written by the person. They're an example of someone's work, a representation of their communication and their writing." His conclusion: "The irony now is that an AI-polished CV takes that away from the recruiter, but it could take it away from the person applying for the job too. So maybe write your own CV." Amy Murr, HR Business Partner at ProVerum, describes the view from the hiring side: "If we get a hundred applications and eighty of them have clearly been through an AI tool, then the ten or twenty you can tell were written thoughtfully, that's what differentiates you from the pack."

Because the work moves in phases, and each phase needs different expertise. On episode three of The Tomorrow People, Gordon Crowley, Chief Operating Officer at ProVerum, is clear that this is not a fallback: "Contracting is becoming more significant in the medical device industry. And not as a workaround, or a cost-saving measure. For a lot of companies like ourselves, it's a deliberate strategic choice." He explains the logic: "The traditional permanent model works well in a stable environment. But where you're moving through phases, R&D to operations to commercial, you need to bring in the expertise for that phase. Very deep expertise, for a short period, without the structural overhead." Amy Murr,  adds that it works for the professional too: "You experience different companies, different ways of working. And it doesn't prohibit permanent conversion."

Deliberately, because the alternative is not no culture. On episode three of The Tomorrow People, Amy Murr, HR Business Partner at ProVerum, who is building the company's team across three locations, puts it plainly: "If you're not deliberate, a culture is going to form anyway, and it might not be the one you wanted to build." Her fixed point is values: "The values are the anchor. Everything around that flexes." She is also direct about what speed does to people when communication falls behind: "Ambiguity at speed creates anxiousness. And most anxious people don't work at their best." Gordon Crowley adds what that asks of leaders: "You need to be protective of it. You need to verbalise it. And you need to live it."

For early-career professionals, more than most people admit. On episode three of The Tomorrow People, Amy Murr, HR Business Partner at ProVerum, describes what gets lost remotely: "Early career especially, you cannot underestimate what you absorb just from being in a room. The informal conversations, watching how decisions get made, picking up on how senior leaders handle pressure and weigh up risk. That's learning you simply can't replicate on a Teams call.

Waiting for instructions. On episode three of The Tomorrow People, Amy Murr, HR Business Partner at ProVerum, names it directly: "Waiting to be told exactly what to do." Her advice runs the other way from performing competence: "Curiosity is a superpower. Nobody expects you to know everything." And, more bluntly: "You don't need to look like you've got it all together. What she sees in the people who progress: "The people who thrive are the ones who are honest about what they don't know, and then move quickly to close those gaps."

Because they compound over a career in a way most technical skills do not. On episode three of The Tomorrow People, Amy Murr, HR Business Partner, at ProVerum, names the skill she expects to matter most in five years: "Communication in all forms, written, verbal, across cultures, across seniority. That's a skill set that compounds." She singles out the habit people avoid: "There's an ease to writing an email or sending a Teams message. Picking up the phone is harder, it's more daunting, but you will build a better relationship having a conversation."

Episode three of The Tomorrow People, featuring Gordon Crowley and Amy Murr of ProVerum, was released on Tuesday 20 October 2026 and is available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and on this page. The Tomorrow People is HERO Recruitment's High Flyers in STEM series, hosted by Deirdre Finnerty, Recruitment and Talent Director and is sponsored by Fenero, a multi award winning company specialising in financial success for contractors, freelancers and solopreneurs.