ai-graduation

## The Principle A pilot does not earn authority because it can be repeated. It earns authority when the organisation understands the conditions under which it holds and the conditions under which it breaks. ## The 7 Moves Walk through each move as a decision gate. The user must demonstrate readiness at each gate before advancing. Skipping gates is the primary failure mode. ### Move 1: Contain **Gate question:** "Is this AI application running in a bounded, observable environment?" Requirements: - Defined scope (what it does, what it doesn't) - Clear boundary conditions (when does it apply, when doesn't it) - Human in the loop for all consequential outputs - No access to systems it shouldn't touch If the AI is running without clear boundaries, stop here. Containment first. ### Move 2: Instrument **Gate question:** "Can you measure what this AI is actually doing?" Requirements: - Logging of inputs, outputs, and decisions - Baseline metrics established (accuracy, latency, cost, error rate) - Ability to compare AI decisions against human decisions - Monitoring for drift (is performance changing over time?) If you can't measure it, you can't evaluate it. Instrument before you trust. ### Move 3: Verify **Gate question:** "Have you tested this against known-good answers?" Requirements: - Test set with ground truth (known correct answers) - Performance measured against human baseline - Edge cases explicitly tested (what happens at the boundaries?) - Failure modes documented (when does it break? how does it fail?) ### Move 4: Prove **Gate question:** "Can you demonstrate this works in the conditions where you plan to use it?" Requirements: - Tested in production-like environment (not just dev/staging) - Tested with real users (not just the team that built it) - Performance validated under realistic load and data quality - Stakeholders have seen it work AND seen it fail CRITICAL: Proving means showing both success AND failure conditions. A demo that only shows the happy path proves nothing. ### Move 5: Narrow **Gate question:** "Have you defined the specific, limited scope for production use?" Requirements: - Explicit scope: what decisions this AI is authorized to make - Explicit exclusions: what decisions require human override - Escalation path: what happens when the AI encounters something outside its scope - Rollback plan: how do you revert if it goes wrong ### Move 6: Widen **Gate question:** "Based on proven performance in the narrow scope, what's the next increment?" Requirements: - Evidence from narrow deployment supports expansion - New scope is an incremental extension, not a leap - New edge cases identified and tested - Monitoring from Move 2 is still active and shows stable performance ### Move 7: Standardise **Gate question:** "Is this AI application ready to become organizational infrastructure?" Requirements: - Documentation exists for operators (not just builders) - Training exists for users - SLA defined and monitored - Incident response procedure documented - Regular review cadence established (quarterly minimum) ## Output ```markdown # AI Graduation Assessment: [AI Application Name] Date: [date] ## Current Position Move [N] of 7: [Move Name] ## Gate Assessment | Move | Status | Evidence | Gap | |------|--------|----------|-----| | 1. Contain | [Pass/Fail/Partial] | [evidence] | [what's missing] | | 2. Instrument | [Pass/Fail/Partial] | [evidence] | [what's missing] | | 3. Verify | [Pass/Fail/Partial] | [evidence] | [what's missing] | | 4. Prove | [Pass/Fail/Partial] | [evidence] | [what's missing] | | 5. Narrow | [Pass/Fail/Partial] | [evidence] | [what's missing] | | 6. Widen | [Pass/Fail/Partial] | [evidence] | [what's missing] | | 7. Standardise | [Pass/Fail/Partial] | [evidence] | [what's missing] | ## Recommendation [Which move to focus on next and what needs to happen] ## Warning Signs [Anything that suggests the organization is trying to skip gates] ``` Based on Stuart Winter-Tear's AI Graduation Path. ## Next step Gate assessed → run **decision-brief** to write the call up, or **codify** to record it. --- Part of the [ThinkHaven Method Kit](https://github.com/hollandkevint/thinkhaven-method-kit) by Kevin Holland. Full Board of Directors experience: [ThinkHaven](https://thinkhaven.co/try)