
For you
Role Checks
Module · The gap between your talk and your use
The Executive's AI Check
You do not have to build AI, but you sign off on it, fund it, and answer for it. That takes a specific kind of judgment: enough hands-on feel to tell a real capability from a pitch, and enough discipline to know which calls a model should never make alone. This module checks the gap between how much you talk about AI and how well you actually understand it, because that gap is where expensive mistakes get approved.
What the five levels look like
Every dimension in this assessment is scored 1 to 5. This is what the levels mean, dimension by dimension. The graded report diagnoses where your own answers land and what to do about it.
You use it yourself
- 1Never touch it
- 2Watched a demo
- 3Dabbled once
- 4Use it weekly
- 5Use it daily
At the low end: Approving AI you have never used is like approving a factory you have never walked. Spend a few hours a week actually working with the tools, so your instinct is built on contact, not slides. What good looks like: Hands-on daily use is what makes your judgment worth trusting. Keep using the current tools, not the ones you learned last year; the capability moves and stale intuition misleads.
You ask sharp questions
- 1Rubber-stamp it
- 2Ask for hype
- 3Generic questions
- 4Probe the risks
- 5Cut to the core
At the low end: A rubber stamp teaches your teams to bring you polish instead of truth. Start asking what breaks this, what data it needs, and what happens when it is confidently wrong. What good looks like: Questions that cut to the core are how you lead on AI without building it. Keep asking them consistently; the day you stop, the theatre comes back.
You resist the hype
- 1Buy the pitch
- 2Easily impressed
- 3Some skepticism
- 4Test the claims
- 5Hard to fool
At the low end: Buying the pitch is how budgets get spent on capability that does not exist yet. Before any commitment, insist on a trial against your own data and your own edge cases, not the vendor's demo. What good looks like: Being hard to fool is a rare and valuable trait in a buyer. Keep testing claims yourself; the vendors get better at the pitch every quarter, and so must your filter.
You know the boundary
- 1No line drawn
- 2Fuzzy sense
- 3Rough boundary
- 4Clear boundary
- 5Boundary and reasons
At the low end: With no line drawn, the boundary gets set by whoever deploys the tool, not by you. Name the decision types in your remit that must always keep a human accountable, and say so out loud. What good looks like: A clear boundary you can explain is exactly what your role owes the organisation. Revisit it as the tools improve; the line moves, but it should move deliberately, not by drift.
You learn from failures
- 1Never hear of them
- 2Bury them quietly
- 3Note and move on
- 4Review the causes
- 5Turn them into lessons
At the low end: If AI failures never reach you, someone is filtering them, and you are flying on a rosy picture. Make it safe and expected to surface what went wrong, then actually look. What good looks like: Turning failures into shared lessons is how an organisation compounds its judgment. Keep the reviews blameless; the moment they start assigning blame, the honest reporting dries up.