The Organisation

Where AI meets the real world: the rules, the costs, the skills and the habits of a group of people.

The terms on this floor

18 entries

acceptable use policyNo. 078An acceptable use policy is the short document that says to whom, on what data and for what tasks AI is permitted within the organisation, and what is forbidden. Like the rules posted at the entrance of a workshop: few lines, known to everyone.
adoptionNo. 036Adoption is the moment a tool actually enters the work: not when it is installed, but when people use it without thinking about it. Like a gym membership: paying the joining fee is not training.
AI ActNo. 029The AI Act is the European regulation that governs artificial intelligence according to the risk of each use: like the safety rules of a building, stricter for a lift than for a doorbell. What it looks at is the use, not the technology.
AI governanceNo. 033AI governance is the set of decisions an organisation takes to know who may use what, on which data, and who answers for the result: like delegated signing authority, which is not there to show distrust but to make clear who commits the firm.
augmentationNo. 018Augmentation means equipping the person who does the work rather than taking the task away from them: like an electric drill, which does not assemble the furniture in your place but lets you assemble more of it, better, and without wearing yourself out.
automationNo. 034Automation means taking a task out of human hands: the machine carries it out from end to end, like a dishwasher that you fill and empty, but that washes without you. The person decides beforehand and checks afterwards, no longer during.
change managementNo. 075Change management is the support work that makes a tool genuinely enter into practice: training, rewriting procedures, arbitrating resistance. Like fitting a new kitchen in a restaurant without stopping service.
cloudNo. 076Cloud refers to running a service on someone else’s machines, billed by usage, with no hardware to buy or to operate. Like taking the train rather than buying a car: you pay for the journey, not for the garage.
copilotNo. 035A copilot is an assistant built into the tool where the work happens, which makes suggestions while the person keeps the controls: like the co-driver on a rally, who calls the bend out loud but never holds the wheel.
cost per tokenNo. 074The cost per token is the unit price of what the model reads and writes: it turns a use into a bill, and it is paid on every call, indefinitely. Like a water meter rather than a subscription: what costs is not the installation, it is the turning of the tap.
digital sovereigntyNo. 032Digital sovereignty is the ability to keep control of your data and your tools: like renting premises where the landlord keeps a spare set of keys and can raise the rent, you work there without setting the rules.
GDPR and AINo. 030The GDPR is the European regulation that protects people’s data, including when it is an AI that processes it: like an address book, where you write down a number for a particular reason, and keep nothing just in case.
high-risk useNo. 107A high-risk use is a use of an AI system that European law holds liable to weigh heavily on a person’s rights or safety, and that it subjects for that reason to reinforced obligations. Like the same vehicle that does not obey the same rules depending on whether it carries parcels or children: it is the use that commands the regime, not the mechanics.
intellectual property and AINo. 080Intellectual property applied to AI raises two distinct questions: what you have the right to give a model to read, and what legal standing whatever comes out of it has. Like a copy shop: what you bring in and what you take out fall under different rules.
on-premiseNo. 077On-premise means running a system on machines the organisation owns and operates, within its own walls or in a data centre it rents. Like having your own boiler: more control, and the maintenance is yours.
personal dataNo. 031Personal data is any information that makes it possible to trace back to a person, directly or by cross-referencing several elements: it is not only the name on the letterbox, it is also the floor they live on, the timetable and the car, which together designate someone just as surely.
return on investmentNo. 079Return on investment sets what a use brings in against what it costs, everything included: licences, calls, integration, review and support. Like the calculation for a machine tool, where the purchase price is rarely the decisive item.
shadow AINo. 019Shadow AI is the use of AI tools by employees outside any official framework: like a personal spreadsheet that ends up running an entire department, without anyone ever having decided that it should exist.

The other floors

The grid

The Elevator is the infographic that maps these four floors: one and the same request, read again at every level.