Whitepaper
Delegating Work to AI
A practical framework for senior leaders deciding where AI can execute, where humans should lead, and how accountability should be retained.
The Practical Delegation Test for deciding where AI can execute, where humans should lead, and how accountability should be retained
Summary
This whitepaper introduces the Practical Delegation Test, a workplace decision tool for deciding what work to delegate to AI, what work should remain human-led, and what accountability remains after AI has contributed to the result.
The central problem is that AI can often generate plausible work faster than organisations can specify, review, integrate, and stand behind it. That can look like productivity while quietly creating review debt, hidden uncertainty, or weak handoffs. The Practical Delegation Test is designed to make those costs visible before work is delegated.
The test asks four questions:
- Can I describe the outcome clearly?
- Can I verify the result cheaply enough?
- What judgment must remain human?
- Where does the uncertainty go?
Those questions help teams choose between direct delegation, checkpointed delegation, human-led work with AI support, and a decision not to delegate. They are not a scoring model and they do not replace formal governance, legal obligations, sector-specific controls, or professional standards. They are a practical way to improve everyday delegation judgment inside those wider controls.
Who this is for
The whitepaper is written primarily for senior leaders, sponsors, and accountable owners who need to shape how AI-assisted work is adopted in practice; practitioners may want to start with the companion guide linked below.
What it covers
The paper explains:
- why AI changes the economics of delegation rather than removing the need for judgement;
- how the Practical Delegation Test works;
- how uncertainty can be pushed downstream when work is delegated badly;
- the difference between direct delegation, checkpointed delegation, human-led work with AI support, and non-delegation;
- how the test sits inside wider governance, legal, security, and professional controls;
- how leaders can adopt the framework without turning every task into a heavyweight process.
Companion Practitioner Guide
A short companion guide is also available for practitioners who want to apply the Practical Delegation Test directly to their own work:
Applying the Practical Delegation Test
Use the companion guide when you want the practical version beside you. Use the whitepaper when you want the full rationale, leadership framing, and governance argument.
Download
The whitepaper is available as a PDF: