Vic Sol · Decision DeskOne-page sheet · 5 min to use
The three levels of AI in a company
For anyone who has to explain "where we are" with AI in one meeting without using the word transformation in vain.
When to use it
Leadership asks "how are we doing with AI?" and the only answer is a list of tools.
An area says it has "transformed" and the only thing that changed is that it writes emails faster.
You have to choose where to put the next effort and there are ten loose ideas.
The sheet
Level one: tasks
Level two: processes
Level three: the operation
What changes
One person does the same thing, faster. An email, a summary.
How work passes from one person to another. Fewer waits, fewer back-and-forths.
Roles, metrics and who decides what.
What it costs
Licences per person and learning time. This is the cheap level.
Redesigning the process, connecting systems and measuring before and after. It costs people's time, not just licences.
Changing job descriptions, metrics and incentives. It costs leadership decisions and change management.
How to tell you are here
AI use is measured in people who use it. No process has fewer steps than a year ago.
At least one complete process has a cycle metric that went down and an owner who answers for it.
A job that used to exist stopped being done and another role absorbed it by design, not by accident.
What moves you to the next
Choosing one complete process, start to finish, and redesigning it. Not more tools.
Two or three level-two processes forcing a change in an area's roles and metrics.
There is no next. There is reviewing every quarter what works and what gets switched off.
Mark where you are
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My reading: most companies are at level one and call it transformation.
Process I will take to level two: ____________________ · Owner: ____________ · Cycle metric today: ______
How to fill it in 5 minutes
Read the three columns with the leadership team and ask each person to mark a level without debating. The differences are the conversation.
Apply the row "How to tell you are here". If all you can count is people who use AI, you are at level one no matter how many tools you have.
If someone marked level two or three, ask for the name of the process and the metric. No name and no number means back to level one.
Choose a single process to take to level two and write it on the last line. One complete process, not three half-done.
The most common mistake: skipping levels. Changing roles and metrics before a process has really changed produces new org charts with the same work as always.
The line that is almost always missing
"Process I will take to level two." Level one is comfortable because each person improves alone and nobody has to agree with anybody. Level two forces a change in how work passes between people, and that is where the result starts to show in the numbers. Without a named process, the sheet is a diagnosis; with one, it is a plan.
Vic Sol · Decision Desk · vicsol.org/resources/ · Free to use with attribution. This sheet structures a conversation; it is not legal, financial or audit advice.
Open the .docx in Word (or the .xlsx in Excel) or print it before the meeting.
Fill the fields with the team; leave the blanks visible, they are the discussion.
Close with one owner, one date and one next action. Nothing else.
Prompt
Generate this sheet for your case
Paste this prompt into ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini together with your proposal, process or policy. It reproduces the sheet with your data and flags what is missing.
Act as an operations director who has watched many companies call it transformation when they use AI on individual tasks, and who distinguishes three levels: tasks, processes and the operation.
Context I am giving you:
- Company and sector: [ ]
- AI tools in use and how many people use them: [ ]
- Processes that changed because of AI (how work passes between people), if any: [ ]
- Cycle metrics measured before and after, if any: [ ]
- Roles, metrics or decisions that formally changed, if any: [ ]
- How leadership describes the current state: [ ]
What I need:
1. Classify the company at level one (tasks: one person does the same thing, faster), level two (processes: how work passes from one person to another changes) or level three (the operation: roles, metrics and who decides what change), with the evidence that justifies it.
2. What type of cost it has paid so far and what type the next level requires: licences, people's time, process redesign, leadership decisions.
3. What it is missing to reach the next level, in three points.
4. One complete process, start to finish, to take to level two: name, owner by role, the cycle metric that should go down and what changes in the handoff between people.
Output format: a table Level · Evidence · What is missing, followed by the process proposal. Maximum 400 words. No introduction.
Rules:
- Do not use the word "transformation" to describe level one.
- Do not propose jumping from level one to level three.
- Do not invent metrics. Where data is missing, write [DATA PENDING] and tell me how to get it.
- If critical information is missing, ask me at most 3 questions before answering.
- Answer in plain, direct business English, with no sales adjectives.
What to check in the answer:
Did it classify level two without naming a process with a cycle metric and an owner? If so, it is level one.
Is the proposed process complete, start to finish, or a task under another name?
Did it describe the cost of the next level as people's time and decisions, or only as licences?
Vic Sol