17. The Two Sliders: AI Intensity and AI Autonomy

As AI’s role became clearer, another question emerged:

How much AI should be used?

Not every process needs the same level of AI.

Not every community should use the same autonomy.

AIFC therefore introduced two conceptual sliders:

AI Intensity
AI Autonomy

AI Intensity

AI intensity describes how much AI is involved.

For example:

• 0% — no AI,
• 25% — AI assists,
• 50% — AI supports workflows,
• 75% — AI agents perform significant work with approval,
• 100% — AI heavily operates within defined boundaries.

AI Autonomy

AI autonomy describes how much AI can do without ongoing human confirmation.

For example:

• suggest only,
• draft,
• create proposal,
• update draft state,
• act with approval,
• act within limited scope,
• act autonomously under audit.

The key insight:

Autonomy must be contextual, not global.

A community may allow high AI autonomy for formatting documentation, but low autonomy for customer commitments, security changes or strategic decisions.

This became the foundation for AI operating modes and agent permissions.

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