If you can’t answer one, that’s the work to do before the pilot, not after it.
Each band needs a different method. Most programmes arrived with the band already set by a demo: simple work got agents it didn’t need, and complex work was forced into a fixed swimlane process it couldn’t survive. The band sets the method, the ladder rung and the memory mix.
Route one defines skills up front. Route two lets agents work out the sequence and promotes what repeats. Readiness for route two is low and thinking is still process-centric, so most organisations will start on route one. What matters is whether route one leaves a path to route two.
In most programmes we’ve seen, the system of record was a gateway where work was filed, not where it was done. The work happened in documents, email, chat and meetings, and was uploaded at the end, if at all. An agent bolted onto the record acts on stale history.
Episodic memory, the record of what happened on each case and why, was the single capability that separated tools that learned from tools that stalled. MIT calls this the learning gap.
Together these are the agent’s shared vocabulary and toolkit: how the domain fits together, what the words mean, and which skills exist. The unglamorous governance nobody wanted to fund was what every AI product depended on. A knowledge assistant can’t exist until the glossary does.
The planner reads the permission table, not the process model: one row per activity, with its rung, guardrail and sensitivity class. Built properly, it did more for trust than any policy document and surfaced contradictions the policies had hidden.
Guardrails are red, yellow and green rules checked at the moment of acting, not filed in a binder. A guardrail without an ID can’t be versioned, and a decision without a recorded rule can’t be defended.
Automate in order: a knowledge assistant first, because now it has something to retrieve; drafting agents second, because now they have rules; delegates and autopilots last. Every plan that started at automate came back to the first two steps at higher cost, usually after the pilot had been declared a success.
On route one, a skill is written, versioned and owned before it runs. On route two, it’s earned: a pattern that works three times, with the episodes to prove it, gets promoted. Either way, the catalogue should grow toward the skills people actually use.
MIT found workers at 90%+ of companies use personal AI tools, but only 40% of companies have bought an official LLM subscription. We saw the same on every programme: the people are ready, the organisation isn’t.
Each band asks a different design question, sits on different rungs and leans on a different memory mix.
Known sequence, stable inputs. Design the workflow, let the system run it, and govern the exceptions.
Knowable with expertise. Define skills with guardrails and a rung; keep accountability human where the stakes say so.
The process emerges. Define agent roles around a shared blackboard; the plan is composed at run time.
Five rungs of human–machine balance. Match the rung to the stakes, the domain and the audit need. Most activities land on rungs 2–4.
What an agent needs to remember, and where each kind lives.
the live case state: goal, facts, open questions, what each role has done
what happened on this case: decisions, overrides, who changed what and why
the ontology, glossary and knowledge graph: the vocabulary plans are written in
the skills each role carries, versioned and promoted on evidence
Where an organisation’s knowledge actually lives, and who holds it today.
Mail, calendars, chat, meetings, working files
Held byPeople, in collaboration tools. Rich and current, but invisible to any system of record.
Transactions, master records, workflow state
Held byIT-run applications. Hard to ask a historic question without a report.
Policies, procedures, reports, minutes
Held byDocument libraries and drives. Findable if you already know where to look.
News, filings, statistics, regulation
Held byNobody. It changes faster than any organisation can curate.
Expertise, judgement, the why behind every override
Held byIndividuals only. The one territory with no system; it leaves with every resignation.
An open standard defines the skill itself; governance adds the rules that run at the moment of acting.
| Activity | Rung | Guardrails | Sensitivity | Memory in | Memory out | Decides |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Prepare the intake summary | 2 of 5 | GR-03, DP-12 | Restricted | Case facts, prior episodes on similar matters | Draft summary, episode entry | Case officer |