AI Boss: the course

About the course

This course follows AI Boss, Book 7 of The Transformed Architecture. It starts by dividing management into five functions, M1 Direction, M2 Evaluation, M3 Consequence, M4 Development and M5 Care, and by defining the degrees at which each may be delegated to AI. It then shows where the AI boss already works, stages the debates on what it does to people, turns to people who manage agents, reads European law as design requirements, and builds the records, oversight, appeal path and notices that make an AI boss accountable. It ends with a year at two organisations and a verdict. The course matters because systems already direct, score and rank people, and someone must answer for it.

After the course the participant can

Map who performs each of the five management functions in a team and which AI systems touch them, at which usage mode and degree
Write a delegation profile that sets the degree per function, names deciders, excludes inputs and fixes a stop path
Explain why Level 4 Autonomous is never used for M3 Consequence and what a named human decider needs in order to be real
Assess the evidence on autonomy, fairness, surveillance, health and productivity, labelling findings as observable, expected or speculation
Write a mandate manifest and a team charter for a team in which people direct agents and work beside them
Classify a management system under the AI Act and check it for solely automated decisions, as organisational implications and not legal advice
Design Management Decision Records, an oversight-quality metric, an appeal path and a worker information notice for one system
Review an organisation against the anti-pattern checklist and turn the findings into a prioritised plan agreed with workers' representatives

Who it is for

HR directors and HR business partners who own systems that roster, screen, score or allocate work
Line managers and team leaders whose teams are directed by systems or who direct AI agents
Works council members, union representatives and safety representatives
AI governance leads, data protection officers and architects of workforce and HR systems
Executives and board members who answer for the allocation of decision rights
Procurement leads who buy workforce-management software

Before the course

Working knowledge of how your own organisation rosters, evaluates, hires and pays people
Familiarity with the series' usage modes and autonomy levels, as introduced in AI Governance and AI Red Team, is helpful but not required
No technical background is needed; the artefacts are short structured records that the course teaches participants to read and write

Material

Three ways to run it

The same material in three lengths. Each row of an agenda names the lessons it draws on.

Executive briefing90 minutes

For management bodies, executive teams and the chairs of works councils or union boards who answer for how management decisions are allocated

A briefing on the question a management body must be able to answer: which management functions its systems already perform, at what degree, and who decides each consequence about a person. It ends with the ten questions of the book's conclusion, to be answered with evidence by the HR director and reviewed by the workers' representatives.

0:00	Who is the boss? Two ordinary scenes, the working thesis and the five management functions Ch. 1, Ch. 2
0:15	Degrees of delegation, default ceilings and the rule that Level 4 Autonomous is never used for M3 Consequence Ch. 4
0:30	How a score becomes a decision: what courts and authorities accepted as a human decision, and what they did not Ch. 5, Ch. 8
0:45	Decision rights, the function owner and what the management body answers for Ch. 20
1:00	Oversight that is real, and the record that shows it Ch. 25, Ch. 26
1:15	Ten questions every organisation should be able to answer about its AI boss, and the first ninety days Ch. 33

One-day seminar1 day

For hR leads, line managers, workers' representatives, data protection officers and AI governance leads working together on one organisation's systems

A working day in which a mixed group of employer and worker representatives takes one of its own systems from function map to delegation profile, decision record, oversight metric, appeal path and worker notice. The morning supplies the frame and the evidence; the afternoon builds the artefacts. Participants leave with drafts they can take into negotiation or consultation.

09:00	The question, the five management functions and a function map of one team Ch. 1, Ch. 2
09:45	The AI boss defined: degrees of delegation, ceilings and a first delegation profile Ch. 4
10:45	Where the AI boss works today: rosters, allocation, scores and office features, with the practice test for an advisory score Ch. 8, Ch. 9, Ch. 10
11:45	What it does to people: the debates on fairness and on health and pace, with their verdicts Ch. 12, Ch. 14
13:15	People who direct agents and mixed teams: what transfers and what stays owed to people Ch. 16, Ch. 18
14:00	The law as design requirements: the AI Act at work and agreements that govern change by class Ch. 21, Ch. 23
14:45	Workshop: a Management Decision Record and an oversight-quality metric for the group's own system Ch. 25, Ch. 26
15:45	Workshop: the appeal path and the first page of a worker information notice Ch. 27, Ch. 28
16:30	The anti-pattern checklist, the ten questions and next steps with the representatives Ch. 31, Ch. 33

Full course7 weeks, one module a week

For practitioners who will design, negotiate or oversee management systems: HR, line management, workers' representatives, governance and procurement

The full course follows the seven parts of the book, one module a week, with a lecture on each part and one lesson per chapter. Each lesson includes an exercise that produces an artefact of the kind the chapter describes, so that by the final week participants hold the material for the capstone: a governed design for one system that manages people.

Week 1	The Question: the thesis, the five management functions, a century of managing by measurement and the AI boss defined Ch. 1, Ch. 2, Ch. 3, Ch. 4
Week 2	The AI Boss Today: platforms, paced work, hiring, performance scores, scheduling and the office Ch. 5, Ch. 6, Ch. 7, Ch. 8, Ch. 9, Ch. 10
Week 3	What It Does to People: five staged debates on autonomy, fairness, surveillance, health and whether it works Ch. 11, Ch. 12, Ch. 13, Ch. 14, Ch. 15
Week 4	Managing Machines: the agent boss, orchestrators, the mixed team, who becomes a manager and decision rights Ch. 16, Ch. 17, Ch. 18, Ch. 19, Ch. 20
Week 5	Europe's Answer: the AI Act at work, data protection and the Platform Work Directive, co-determination, safety, equality and public employers Ch. 21, Ch. 22, Ch. 23, Ch. 24
Week 6	Designing the Accountable AI Boss: records, oversight, contestability, transparency and the transformed manager Ch. 25, Ch. 26, Ch. 27, Ch. 28, Ch. 29
Week 7	Experience and Verdict: a year at two organisations, case studies and anti-patterns, conclusions and the capstone presentations Ch. 30, Ch. 31, Ch. 32, Ch. 33

Modules and lessons

One module for each part of the book and one lesson for each chapter. A lesson has learning objectives, key concepts, a teaching plan, discussion questions, an exercise and a self-test.

Module 1 · Part I · The Question

Part I states the question of the book: when AI takes over parts of the manager's work, who is the boss and who answers for what happens to the person managed? The module derives the five management functions, places algorithmic management in a century of managing by measurement, and defines the AI boss, the degrees of delegation and the rule that Level 4 Autonomous is never used for M3 Consequence. Participants leave able to draw a function map and to write a first delegation profile. Lecture: Who Is the Boss? Five Functions, Five Degrees and One Rule

Module 2 · Part II · The AI Boss Today

Part II shows where the AI boss already works: on dispatch platforms, in warehouses and paced work, in hiring, in performance scores and dismissal, in rosters and allocation, and in office features nobody decided on. Each lesson separates what a source reported from what it has been taken to mean and names the management functions involved. Participants leave able to benchmark an internal dispatcher, assess a rate system as a work-environment risk, keep a hiring decision with a recruiter, test whether a score is decisive in practice and build a feature register. Lecture: The AI Boss Today: How Direction and Evaluation Become Consequence

Module 3 · Part III · What It Does to People

Part III tests the book's thesis against the evidence on what the AI boss does to people. Five debates, each staged as the case for concern, the case for calm, where the positions meet and what can be done, cover autonomy and dignity, fairness and contestability, surveillance, health and pace, and whether algorithmic management works at all. Participants leave able to state both positions at their strongest, to label findings observable, expected or speculation, and to run the five instruments the chapters supply. Lecture: Five Debates and Where They Meet: What the AI Boss Does to People

Module 4 · Part IV · Managing Machines

Part IV turns the question round: people who manage AI agents, agents that orchestrate other agents, teams in which people and agents work under one manager, the narrowing route into management, and the written allocation of decision rights. Participants learn which parts of management transfer to agents and which remain owed only to people, and leave able to write a mandate manifest, draw a chain of accountability, draft a team charter, design a managerial craft programme and write a decision-rights file. Lecture: Managing Machines: What Transfers, What Does Not, and Who Answers

Module 5 · Part V · Europe's Answer

Part V reads the law as requirements on the design of management systems, framed as organisational and architectural implications and not as legal advice. It covers the AI Act at work, the GDPR and the Platform Work Directive, co-determination in its national forms, and occupational safety, equality law and the public authority as employer. Participants leave able to classify a management system per function, check it for solely automated decisions, draft an agreement that governs change by class, and write tender requirements that keep the evidence in the employer's hands. Lecture: Europe's Answer: Reading the Law as Design Requirements

Module 6 · Part VI · Designing the Accountable AI Boss

Part VI turns the book's analysis into designs. It supplies the Management Decision Record and the delegation register, the oversight record and oversight-quality metric, the appeal path and contestation record, the worker information notice and transparency register, and the role charter of the transformed manager. Participants leave able to introduce decision records for one system, test whether human oversight is real, build an appeal path that corrects the system as well as the case, write a notice workers can act on, and budget a manager's time for development and care. Lecture: Designing the Accountable AI Boss: Record, Oversight, Appeal, Notice, Role

Module 7 · Part VII · Experience and Verdict

Part VII turns from design to experience and verdict. It follows four people through a year with the AI boss at Nordvik Region and Hansa Mutual, sets that experience beside eight documented cases, three composites and twelve anti-patterns, draws the conclusions and 24-month plans of the two organisations, and judges the book's thesis claim by claim. Participants leave able to run a quarterly review with representatives, review an organisation against the anti-pattern checklist, write a prioritised plan and answer ten questions about their own AI boss. Lecture: Experience and Verdict: A Year, Twelve Anti-Patterns and a Named Person in the Chair

Final assignment

Capstone

A Governed Design for One System That Manages People

Choose one AI system that performs part of a management function over people, in your own organisation or at Nordvik Region or Hansa Mutual as the book describes them. Produce the set of artefacts that would let the organisation delegate to it accountably: what it may do in each of the five management functions and at what degree, who decides each consequence, how each decision is recorded, how oversight is shown to be real, how a worker learns of the system and contests a decision, and how the organisation would know the delegation can be undone. Every statement about law is framed as an organisational implication, and nothing in the design monitors people covertly or bypasses the workers' representatives.

Steps

Draw the function map for one team and identify every function the system touches, with usage mode, degree in practice and who decided it.
Write the delegation profile: degree per function and action class against the default ceilings, deciders, allowed and prohibited inputs, stop path, review triggers and the representatives' procedure.
Design the record and the oversight: one sample Management Decision Record, and an oversight-quality metric with floors, seeded cases and team-level reporting.
Design the worker's side: the first page of the worker information notice, tested with a reader, and the appeal path with reviewer, time limits and correction of the rule.
Test the design: run the anti-pattern checklist against it, design one reversibility test, and write the three decisions you would put to the management body.

Deliverables

A function map and a delegation profile for the chosen system
A sample Management Decision Record and an oversight-quality metric specification
A one-page worker information notice and an appeal path with a sample contestation record
A two-page assessment: anti-pattern checklist results, reversibility test design and at most three decisions for the management body

Assessment criteria

Every M3 Consequence decision has a named human decider, no adverse consequence exceeds Level 1 Assisted, and Level 4 Autonomous is not used for any consequence
The five management functions, degrees and usage modes are named exactly, and each action is assigned to a function by its effect on the person
The artefacts are consistent with one another and specific enough to be tested from records, with figures reported at team level and never used to evaluate individuals
The worker's notice and appeal path can be understood and used by the people the system manages, and the representatives' role is stated at each step
Claims are separated into observable, expected and speculation, and legal content is framed as organisational implication with the instrument and article named