AI Level Guide

AI Adoption Level Guide

This adoption canvas sets the success path for change-management — how people progress with AI and compound their systems.

Maturity vs. Progress

COMPANY PROJECTED EMPLOYEES (EXAMPLE)
70%
22%
5%
2%
1%
L0
L1
L2
L3
L4
L5
S1
S2
S3

ORGANISATIONAL PROGRESS

S1L1One-OffNOW

The Success Path

Overview of all levels, from the first move to the gate out. Open a level for more detail.

S1 · PersonalL0–L1
L0Getting Familiar

LOOKING FOR USE CASES

What they'd say

“AI sounds interesting, but I don’t know how I’d use it.”

First move

Ask one work question in Claude, ChatGPT, or Perplexity instead of Google.

Gate out

One kept output. You used a chat AI on real work and the result beat what you would have written alone.

KPIUsage Metrics (Frequency & Trust)
L1One-Off

Chat: Get advice.

What they'd say

“I use ChatGPT to research topics faster. It consistently saves me time.”

First move

Write your “who I am, how I want responses” paragraph where the AI reads it every time.

Gate out

Personal OS. A context file the AI reads every session, plus a live connection to one real work system.

KPITime Saved
S2 · TeamL2–L3
L2Shared Knowledge

Docs: Get personalized consumables.

What they'd say

“I stopped pasting context in. It reads our real docs, and what I teach it, my team gets too.”

First move

Brief the AI with your last three calls and the CRM before you draft anything.

Gate out

Team OS. Someone else pulled your context into their own work without being told it was there.

KPIQuality Metrics (Error Rates, rework)
L3Shared Skills

Work: AI completes tasks for you to modify.

What they'd say

“I have AI doing work for me. The tedious stuff is taken care of.”

First move

Package the task you have been asked for twice into a skill, and tell one person to try it.

Gate out

Function OS. Three shared skills teammates reach for unprompted, and one workflow that chains two tools.

KPIWorkflow Metrics (Cycle time, Throughput)
S3 · AgentsL4–L5
L4Autonomous Agents

Auto: AI systems get work done for you.

What they'd say

“My job is to build the system that makes the output, not the output.”

First move

Add a second agent with a different role to your weakest skill, then watch one cycle without intervening.

Gate out

Agent OS. A system felt by two functions outside your own, and one workflow whose outputs you no longer touch.

KPIFinancial Metrics (Cost, Revenue)
L5Cross-Team Compounding

Grow: AI builds systems driving outcomes across teams.

What they'd say

“Across teams, things just run. Gaps get flagged before I see them.”

First move

Give an agent the outcome and the definition of done, not the steps.

Gate out

Company OS. Five days fully off, and your systems advanced goals with no rollback and no fire-fighting.

KPI24/7 agent uptime