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Our point of view · The Autonomy Ladder

Start supervised. Earn the right to run.

The Autonomy Ladder is how Devs Core decides how much an AI agent may do on its own inside a business’s systems: five rungs, from L0 Observe to L4 Delegate, and an agent moves up one rung only with evidence.

Every agent we build sits on a rung of the Autonomy Ladder. It moves up one rung only with evidence — and it can move down the same way. Most of our work starts at L1 and L2: the governed core.

  1. L0Observe

    Reads data. Changes nothing.

  2. L1Propose

    Drafts the action; a person does it.

  3. L2Approve

    A named person approves each write.

  4. L3Sample

    Acts alone; people review a sample.

  5. L4Delegate

    Acts within limits; every action logged.

  • What earns a rung

    An approval record, a measured error rate, and a written sign-off from your team. Never a feeling, never a demo.

  • Who decides

    You do, per operation. An agent can run unattended on stock questions while purchase orders still wait for approval.

  • In every engagement

    Each proposal and audit names the starting rung and the evidence that earns the next one.

Nothing changes in your system of record until a named person approves it — and every change is logged.

Nothing goes wrong silently

Questions

The Autonomy Ladder, answered

What is the Autonomy Ladder?
Five rungs that say how much an AI agent may do on its own: L0 Observe reads data and changes nothing; L1 Propose drafts the action and a person does it; L2 Approve has a named person approve each write; L3 Sample acts alone while people review a sample; L4 Delegate acts within limits with every action logged.
How does an agent move up a rung?
Only with evidence: an approval record, a measured error rate, and a written sign-off from your team. Never a feeling, never a demo. It can move down the same way.
Where does a new agent start?
Most of our work starts at L1 and L2: the governed core. Each proposal and audit names the starting rung and the evidence that earns the next one.
Is the rung set for the whole agent?
No. You decide per operation. An agent can run unattended on stock questions while purchase orders still wait for approval.
Find your starting rung with the auditSee it in the case studies

Tell us which process is costing you.

Thirty minutes, no preparation, no deck. You describe what keeps going wrong and we tell you whether AI is the answer — including when it is not.

Book a discovery callOr start with the audit

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