Moria Levy: Shaping the Strategic Future of Knowledge Management in an Age of AI and Complexity
For nearly three decades, Moria Levy has stood at the forefront of a discipline that quietly underpins every high-performing organization: knowledge management. As CEO of ROM Global, Chair of the ISO Knowledge Management Experts Committee, and lead author of ISO 30401, Levy has not only helped organizations manage what they know, but has fundamentally influenced how knowledge itself is understood, valued, and leveraged as a strategic asset.
Her journey into knowledge management was not premeditated, but it was deeply intentional once its significance became clear. Early in her career, while running a software firm and supporting organizations through complex technological challenges, Levy encountered what initially appeared to be a technical knowledge management problem. Very quickly, she realized the issue ran far deeper.
“The real challenge was never the technology,” she explains. “It was about leverage. How do organizations transform experience, expertise, and insight into something that scales and creates lasting value?”
That realization marked a turning point. Knowledge management, when treated merely as repositories or systems, fails to deliver. But when approached as an integrated discipline that aligns methodology, technology, and human behavior, it becomes transformational. This insight anchored Levy’s long-term commitment to the field, turning an emerging practice into a lifelong professional mission.
From Support Function to Strategic Capability
When Levy founded ROM Global, knowledge management was still widely viewed as a secondary or support function. Initiatives were fragmented, often disconnected from business outcomes, and heavily focused on documentation rather than decision-making. Over time, that perception has shifted, and Levy has been instrumental in driving that evolution.
Today, organizations operate in environments defined by complexity, speed, and knowledge-intensive work. Under these conditions, knowledge management is no longer optional. It has become a strategic capability.
“KM succeeds only when it is directly connected to business outcomes,” Levy notes. “When organizations stop asking what KM activities they should run and start asking where knowledge most directly affects performance, risk, and growth, everything changes.”
This perspective is not theoretical; it is grounded in hundreds of real-world KM initiatives over the years, where applying these principles led to measurable improvements in business performance, risk reduction, and organizational resilience.
Her approach consistently works along three interconnected paths. First, risk reduction, ensuring that critical knowledge does not walk out the door with departing employees or remain locked within a few individuals. Second, performance improvement, by streamlining processes, accelerating decisions, and reducing repeat mistakes. Third, growth enablement, using knowledge as a foundation for innovation, scalability, and new capabilities.
It is this deliberate linkage between knowledge and strategy that enables organizations to shift their mindset. Knowledge management stops being a background function and becomes a driver of resilience, competitiveness, and long-term value.
The Human Side of Knowledge
Despite rapid advances in technology, Levy remains clear that the hardest part of knowledge management has not changed. It is still change management.
“Without trust, adoption, and visible business value, even the most advanced solutions fail,” she says.
This conviction runs through all her work. Knowledge initiatives succeed or fail based on people, behaviors, and culture, not tools. Over the years, Levy has also helped build a global community of knowledge professionals who no longer work in isolation but collaborate, share practices, and support one another in an increasingly demanding field.
That sense of community reflects her broader belief that knowledge is not static. It is social, contextual, and constantly evolving.
Creating a Global Standard for Knowledge
Levy’s leadership reached a global stage through her role as Chair of the ISO Knowledge Management Experts Committee and lead author of ISO 30401. Developing a global standard for a field with diverse schools of thought, industries, and cultural contexts was no small task.
“The challenge was setting the bar high without losing inclusivity,” Levy reflects. “A standard must be rigorous, but it also has to be usable across very different organizational realities.”
ISO 30401 now serves two critical purposes. It provides a shared professional language in a field that long lacked alignment, and it offers organizations a structured framework to understand what excellence in knowledge management looks like and how to progress toward it.
Levy is candid about the journey still ahead. Adoption takes time, and standards mature through real-world application. Yet her long-term vision is clear: ISO 30401 becoming a widely recognized signal of excellence, much like other established management standards.
Knowledge Retention as a Strategic Risk
One of Levy’s core focus areas is knowledge retention, a topic that has grown increasingly urgent as automation and digital systems expand. As processes become automated, the differentiator is no longer execution alone but the knowledge employees bring to their roles.
Organizations that fail to address knowledge retention face multiple risks. Critical expertise disappears when experienced employees leave. Dependency on a handful of experts creates bottlenecks. Single-incumbent roles expose operational vulnerability. Outsourced projects deliver outputs without transferring the underlying knowledge needed for sustainability.
“Knowledge loss is not an abstract risk,” Levy emphasizes. “It is operational, strategic, and often invisible until it is too late.”
Addressing these risks requires deliberate identification of critical knowledge and systematic approaches to embed it so that it remains accessible, reusable, and resilient over time.
Knowledge Management and Change Management
In Levy’s work, knowledge management and change management are inseparable. Knowledge management strategy defines where an organization needs to evolve, while change management serves as a means for the knowledge management staff to ensure evolution actually happens.
At the same time, effective change depends on knowledge. Clear communication, learning, and shared understanding are what allow change to scale and endure. When organizations integrate both disciplines, they move beyond episodic transformation toward continuous improvement.
Knowledge Workers in the 21st Century
One of the most persistent misconceptions Levy encounters is the idea that knowledge workers are a distinct group. In reality, nearly everyone is a knowledge worker today.
“When leaders understand that they are managing not just people, but the knowledge of their organization, leadership itself changes,” she explains.
This realization reframes leadership. Knowledge management becomes a leadership tool, not an administrative function.
AI, Generative AI, and the Future of KM
Artificial intelligence represents a true disruption for knowledge management, particularly generative AI. It is changing how knowledge is accessed, interpreted, and applied. In the short term, AI augments traditional KM activities. Over the coming years, it will fundamentally reshape the profession.
“Knowledge managers will move from maintaining repositories to designing intelligent knowledge-based solutions,” Levy says. “Including AI agents that support decision-making in specific business contexts.”
Yet she is clear that AI must remain an extension of human expertise, not a replacement for it. Responsible integration requires grounding AI in tacit and explicit human knowledge, positioning it as decision support rather than an autonomous authority, and continuously monitoring for bias and unintended consequences.
“When AI is designed as a partner to human judgment, it becomes powerful and trustworthy,” she adds.
KM Across Sectors and Cultures
Having worked extensively across public and private sectors, Levy observes distinct but complementary strengths. Public-sector organizations often bring patience and a long-term perspective, while private-sector organizations emphasize performance and measurable impact. The strongest KM approaches combine both.
Across regions, however, the challenges remain strikingly similar. Many organizations still underestimate the complexity of KM, treat it as a tooling problem, or expect quick fixes. Sustainable success requires committed leadership and professional KM expertise anchored in real business needs.
From Lessons Learned to Learning
Levy’s early work with the Israeli Air Force left a lasting impression. There, a deeply embedded lessons-learned culture demonstrated how structured reflection could drive continuous improvement. Yet many organizations fail to reuse lessons effectively.
Too often, lessons are superficial, poorly articulated, or insufficiently embedded into relevant contexts. Levy explored this challenge deeply in her book A Holistic Approach to Lessons Learned, emphasizing that learning only occurs when the lessons are fully managed in a life cycle turning then actionable , hence influencing future activities and decisions.
Continuous Development
In a world of rapid change, continuous learning is no longer optional, for all of us, including knowledge managers. Combined with digital literacy, agility, collaboration, creative and critical thinking, it equips individuals and organizations to navigate uncertainty and sustain long-term excellence.
Levy herself stays current through deliberate engagement with global KM communities, conferences, emerging technologies, and ongoing dialogue. She also emphasizes the importance of courage and humility: the willingness to challenge established thinking while remaining open to learning from others.
A Clear Path Forward
For executives overwhelmed by KM complexity, Levy offers disciplined simplicity. Start with why knowledge matters to a specific business need. Identify who will lead the effort with professional expertise. Design how KM will fit the organization’s context. When these are clear, the rest follows naturally.
Looking ahead, Levy’s vision for ROM Global is unambiguous. She aims to position the firm as a trusted global leader in knowledge management, associated with ongoing excellence and real organizational impact.
In her own words: “How we choose to work with knowledge will define the organizations we become. It is our responsibility to lead that choice.”