2.2 Five things people call "AI"
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In everyday life. You go away for a week and leave things to look after your house. A timer turns on the porch light at 7 p.m. every night, the same way each time. That is an automation. A voice assistant answers whenever someone asks it a question, one request at a time — and the "brain" inside it that turns the question into an answer is the model. A plumber you call about a leak works out the steps himself, but only for that one job, and leaves when it is fixed. That is an agent. A house sitter looks after the whole house. They decide what each day needs, and they answer to you for how the week went. That is closest to a worker.
People use one word for five different things. Each one is useful. The AI Worker is the one built to be managed.
| Thing | What it is | Who decides the steps |
|---|---|---|
| Model | The trained engine that turns input into output. On its own it has no tools and no memory | Nobody. It produces one response |
| Assistant | A product that puts a model behind a chat for whoever is typing | The person, one request at a time |
| Automation | Fixed steps written in advance, run the same way every time | The person who wrote the steps |
| Agent | A model in a loop with tools. It plans, acts, checks and acts again | The agent, inside the task |
| AI Worker | A role, defined by its sixteen elements, with a named owner | The worker, inside its authority |
How the five fit together
The five do not compete. They fit together. A model sits inside every assistant and every agent. An AI Worker usually does its work through an agent. It may also call automations for the steps that should never change, such as saving each invoice PDF to the right folder. An automation is still the right tool when the steps are known and judgment adds only risk.
Figure 2.3. The five kinds fit together. A model sits inside every assistant and agent. A worker works through an agent and may call automations — and the machinery underneath is replaceable.
Two questions that tell them apart
Two questions tell the five apart. The first is who decides the steps? The table answers it for each one. The second is who answers for the outcome? This question separates a worker from all the others. Ask both questions about how something is used, not about the product, because one product can be used in several ways. At Brightline, the clerk who happened to be typing used the assistant, but nobody answered for what it did. Brightline used an assistant as if it were a worker. An owner alone is still not enough. Someone in IT owns the script that saves invoice PDFs, and that script is still an automation. A worker needs the whole set: defined responsibilities, bounded authority, continuity (it keeps doing its work over time), evaluations and an owner who answers for its results. The sixteen elements in 2.1 spell out that set in full.
The same two questions also sharpen the two kinds of worker from 2.1. A Delegated AI Worker decides the steps, but not when to start: you brief it, it does the job, and it stops — like the plumber, but with an owner who answers for the result. A Standing AI Worker also decides when work is needed, within its authority: it notices the new vendor email or the Monday deadline and acts, the way the house sitter does not wait to be told the plants need water. That initiative is what makes standing work powerful, and what makes it need the most governance. Chapter 9 teaches how to govern it.
Check yourself
Question 1 / 8
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A script saves every invoice PDF to the right folder, the same way every time. What is it?
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