AutomationorAugmentation
Automation takes the task away from the person: the system does it from beginning to end. Augmentation equips the person: they go on deciding, but faster and on material that arrives already prepared.
Point by point
| Criterion | Floor 4Floor 4 · The Organisationa mosaic: AI is only one tile among manyAutomation | Floor 4Floor 4 · The Organisationa mosaic: AI is only one tile among manyAugmentation |
|---|---|---|
| What disappears | The task | Part of its drudgery |
| Who decides | The system, within its remit | The person, always |
| Condition for success | The task is repetitive and can be framed | The person keeps the judgement |
| What gets measured | Volume handled, error rate | Time per case, quality |
| Social risk | Jobs cut | Work intensified |
| Resistance met | Strong, and legitimate | Low, if the gain is real |
On the ground four situations
Supplier invoices are read, checked and recorded without intervention, unless something looks wrong.
Floor 4 · The Organisationa mosaic: AI is only one tile among manyAutomationThe task has left the job. What remains is supervision by exception, which is a different occupation.
A lawyer receives, for each contract, a summary of the unusual clauses, which they read before deciding.
Floor 4 · The Organisationa mosaic: AI is only one tile among manyAugmentationThe decision remains whole, but the material arrives prepared. That is reading time saved, not judgement delegated.
A tool drafts the replies to customer reviews, which an employee approves in one click without really reading them.
Neither: automation in disguiseThe useful counter-example: the approval is a formality, nobody exercises judgement. You get the appearance of augmentation and the risks of automation, with the guarantees of neither.
A department handles simple requests automatically and prepares an enriched case file for the complex ones.
BothThe most common split in practice: automate what can be framed, augment where judgement is still needed.
The test that settles it
Ask what happens if the person does nothing. If the work still gets done, it is automation. If it does not, it is augmentation.
The trap
Approval for show. Making someone click on an output they do not read does not create augmentation: it creates an automation whose responsibility has been transferred to a person with no means of exercising it.
Check click your answer
Level 1 · Recognise
What distinguishes automation from augmentation?
Level 2 · Distinguish
An employee approves a hundred outputs a day without reading them. What is this?
Level 2 · Distinguish
Why does augmentation meet less resistance?