Governance template 01 · Academy resource

Authority Map Worksheet

Map a real operating pressure to the AI capability under consideration, the permission boundary, the named human owner and the evidence required before anything moves.

Use this when

You are considering where an AI Worker could help, but the organisation has not yet separated what it can do from what it is allowed to do.

This is not an AI shopping list. It is a structured way to reveal where capability, permission and responsibility are currently blurred.

Start with the signal

Name the operating pressure in plain language. A useful signal is observable: missed follow-up, repeated rework, slow handover, inconsistent qualification or an escalating backlog.

Describe the opportunity

State the bounded contribution you are considering. Do not write a job title. Describe the specific work an AI Worker might support.

Separate capability from permission

Capability answers what the system can technically do. Permission answers what it may do in this organisation, in this situation, under this evidence standard.

Name the human owner

Every consequential boundary needs a named human owner. A team, role label or generic approval queue is not enough.

Working prompts

Use the questions before the form.

Business signal
What observable operating pressure, bottleneck or opportunity are you responding to?
Potential AI Worker contribution
What bounded contribution could an AI Worker make?
Capability
What could the AI Worker technically do?
Permission boundary
What is it permitted to do without a named human decision?
Named human owner
Who owns the decision boundary and why?
Evidence requirement
What evidence must be available before the next step can be considered?
Escalation point
Where must the AI Worker stop and return the matter to a human?
A complete Authority Map should make it harder—not easier—to pretend an AI Worker has authority it has not been given.