All courses / AI Boss / Module 1 / Chapter 1
Learning objectives
After the lesson the participant can:
- State the four claims of the working thesis and the evidence the chapter says would weaken each.
- Name the five management functions and the five degrees of delegation exactly as the book does.
- Distinguish the degree of delegation from the usage mode, using examples from the chapter.
- Draft a miniature function map for one unit, including Mode 0 features nobody decided on.
Key concepts
- Working thesis
- Four claims under test: AI may direct work but may not, on its own, decide about people; every management decision AI makes or shapes is a record; the manager's role is transformed, not abolished; and the quiet harms deserve attention before the loud ones.
- Five management functions
- M1 Direction, M2 Evaluation, M3 Consequence, M4 Development and M5 Care: the units by which the book asks what may be delegated, measured and governed one by one.
- Degree of delegation
- The series' autonomy level applied to a management function, from Level 0 Advisory, where the system suggests and a person decides, to Level 4 Autonomous, which is never used for M3 Consequence.
- Usage mode
- How the AI is deployed and whose identity it uses, from Mode 0 Ambient AI to Mode 5 Autonomous production agents. In Modes 1 to 3 the AI works under the manager's identity; in Mode 5 agents act in their own name.
- Observable, expected, speculation
- The three labels every statement about the future carries. Agents that allocate work to people are observable, the spread of AI-directed knowledge work is expected, and every employee becoming a manager of agents is speculation.
Interactive exercises
Do them here and get feedback at once. Choose a card and then where it belongs, or drag it.
Interactive exercise 1 · Sort
Observable, expected or speculation?
Chapter 1 gives every statement about the future one of three labels. Sort each statement under the label the chapter gives it.
Interactive exercise 2 · Match
Who and what carries the story
Match each person or system of the two organisations with the description Chapter 1 gives of it.
Teaching plan
| 10 min | The teacher reads the two opening scenes, the roster in the approval queue and the claim in Jana Petersen's team, and asks participants who the boss is in each. |
| 15 min | Presentation of the four claims of the thesis with what would weaken each, then the five functions, the five degrees and the difference between degree and usage mode. |
| 10 min | Walk through why the question is European and urgent in the autumn of 2026: the dates in the AI Act, the Digital Omnibus and the Platform Work Directive as the chapter gives them. |
| 20 min | Exercise: groups draft a miniature function map for one unit and report which touches they marked as unknown or not decided. |
| 5 min | Closing discussion on the difference between Nordvik's procured AI boss and Hansa's built one, and what each commission must deliver. |
Discussion
- The chapter gives, for each of its four claims, the evidence that would weaken it. Which of the four do you expect to be hardest to defend in your own organisation, and why?
- Microsoft's phrase 'the rise of the agent boss' is quoted but not adopted. What separates the observable part of that claim from the part the book labels speculation?
- Nordvik Region's AI boss is mostly procured and Hansa Mutual's mostly built. How does that difference change the first work each HR function has to do?
Written exercise
Exercise · 20 minutes
Locate one unit on the five functions
Following the chapter's practical guide, choose one unit of 15 to 40 people in your own organisation, or use the chapter's example shift-based unit. List the systems the unit uses and the AI features enabled in each, including features switched on by vendor releases. For each system write which management functions it touches, the usage mode, the degree in practice and who decided it. Where nobody knows, write unknown; where nobody decided, write not decided. Finish with the consequence check: does every touch of M3 Consequence have a named human decider?
Deliverable: A one-page function map for one unit with systems, functions touched, mode, degree in practice, decider, the consequence check and the named owner who receives the findings.
Self-test
Choose an answer to see whether it is right, or open the answer below each question.
According to the chapter's first claim, which decisions always keep a named human decider?
Show the answer
B. Hiring, pay, promotion, discipline, dismissal, deactivation and access to work
The first claim says the functions that assign and pace work can be delegated at a degree matched to reversibility, whereas the M3 Consequence decisions always have a named human decider who can be identified, contested and held to account.In the miniature function map of the chapter's practical guide, what is written for the meeting-summary feature that names owners of action items?
Show the answer
D. Degree in practice unknown, and decided by: not decided
The feature is a Mode 0 Ambient AI touch on M1 Direction and M2 Evaluation that was enabled by a vendor release; the map records the degree as unknown and the decision as not decided, which is itself the finding.What does the chapter say distinguishes Nordvik Region's commission (AIDR-0600) from Hansa Mutual's board request (AIDR-0650)?
Show the answer
A. Nordvik's concerns procured systems under one regime and a duty to negotiate; Hansa's, built agents under seven regimes and a duty to co-determine
The chapter closes the worked example with exactly this contrast: procured systems, one regime and a duty to negotiate at Nordvik; built agents, seven regimes and a duty to co-determine at Hansa.