The Keep Pace Technology "Intelligent Agent Capability Map"
Intelligent Agent Education - Part 2
In Part 1 of this series, the recommendation was to begin your journey with Intelligent Agents by familiarizing yourself with "Agentic Use Cases." To support this, a Google-developed article featuring over 300 examples of agents was shared.
While this article offers a great starting point for understanding Intelligent Agents and the types of tasks they can perform, it’s essential to take a deeper dive. To do this, you need to decompose the specific capabilities required for a given job. With a decomposed list in hand, you can then assess whether a Human, an Intelligent Agent, or a combination of both is the most effective solution for carrying out the work.
It was then I realized I needed a visual to effectively demonstrate the approach. While I had some initial ideas for the diagram, I experimented with the diagrams mentioned in the following three approaches:
LinkedIn Diagram - Created by a LinkedIn Global Evangelist, this diagram aligned HR capabilities across an X/Y graph of capabilities - to demonstrate which tasks would be best suited for AI or Human. While I liked the diagram concept - it wasn’t a good fit for what I trying to accomplish.
Landscape - For those that have seen my presentations, you know I am a HUGE fan of the following diagram. At its core, it demonstrates which capabilities are being addressed by software. You can use this example to help you in the task decomposition process.
RACI - I then tried using a RACI diagram. While this got me a bit closer, the resulting diagram was a bit too busy for my taste.
Soon after I realized none of these approaches were going to work - I reached out to a few members of my “inner circle” - where I learned about the RAPID Decision Making Model. For those not familiar with RAPID, the letters stand for:
Recommenders - those that compile data and suggest a course of action.
Informers - Those that provide the data, facts, or expertise that inform the recommendation.
Agreers (Not used in this diagram) - ensure key stakeholders are aligned with or consent to the direction before a decision is finalized.
Decision Maker - listens to recommendations, considers inputs, and makes the final decision.
Performers (Not used in this diagram) - The resources that perform the actual work
Coupled with my preview efforts - I think arrived at the following “Intelligent Agent Capability Map”:
NOTE: This diagram/map is not meant to be an exhaustive list of Project Management capabilities. And these represent my initial assignments - based on my research, conversations and intelligent guesses.
The purpose of this exercise was to show an example of how to decompose the capabilities of a given job title. Once the capabilities were identified, you could then determine 1) how data/content is provided - 2) who develops the recommendations and 3) who makes the final decisions.Diagram Takeaways
While simple in design, a completed “Intelligent Agent Capabilities” diagram will give you several career insights (presented in no particular order):
You still see a LOT of human activity in the diagram. Agents will initially focus on tedious tasks - allowing the individual to focus on higher value activities.
Identifying “skill opportunities” - Intelligent Agents CAN’T do everything. Find those skills and become a SME in them.
Identifying “career threats” - Look for the capabilities that are best performed by Intelligent Agents. This will reduce the amount of time you spend on building/enhancing skills that are better done elsewhere.
And realize, if you do create your own version of this template - it should NOT be considered a “one and done” exercise. As intelligent agents evolve/mature (and they will), it is highly likely there will be changes as to who (or what) should be responsible for a given capability.
How can I help you “Keep Pace” with AI?
I offer a range of consulting / architecture / governance options to help companies successfully deal with successfully implementing AI in their organizations.
I also offer a free weekly webinar that I hold every Sunday Morning (@9AM EST) - where for 30 minutes I focus on the key AI events / articles of the week - and what they mean.
The webinar streams LIVE on the following sites:
www.facebook.com/keeppace
www.twitter.com/keeppace
www.linkedin.com/in/keeppace
And the history (and playlists) of previous videos is available at:
www.youtube.com/keeppace