OKAI GOOkanagan AI Growth Opportunities

AI Literacy Framework · Part 3 of 7

Delegation

Who should do the job: me, AI or another person?

Start with your own rules

How do you decide what to hand to AI, and what to keep for yourself?

Write down a few rules of thumb in your own words. “If it’s boring.” “If I already know the answer.” “Never for anything personal.” Keep the list handy, because the next section tests it against a fuller set of reasons.

When to delegate to AI, and when not to

Which of your rules are here, and which are new?

Don’t, when…

  • You need to build the skill
  • High accuracy is required
  • The struggle is the point
  • The human input is the point: condolences, birthday notes, obituaries
  • Your effort is the signal

Consider it, when…

  • You need quantity to find quality
  • You need to break a block
  • You’re the expert and can judge fast
  • You’re transforming what you have
  • You want perspectives you haven’t considered
  • AI beats the best help available
  • You’re filling a gap in your expertise

Two examples. A sympathy card for a colleague is “the human input is the point.” Turning your 15-page report into a one-page summary is “transforming what you have.”

Forklifting vs weightlifting

Two-panel cartoon. In a warehouse, a worker uses a forklift to move a pallet of boxes. In a gym, someone sits back while a forklift lifts the barbell for them.
Cartoon generated with Nano Banana Pro.

When is the goal to finish the task?

When is the goal to build the skill?

In the warehouse, the job is moving the pallet, so use the forklift. In the gym, the lifting is the point, and the forklift defeats the purpose. Which of your own tasks are warehouse tasks, and which are gym tasks?

The jagged frontier

AI can be excellent at one task and poor at a similar-looking one, and the line moves with every new model.

2023 Jaggedness

Consultants did 40% better on developing creative product ideas unless the key information was buried in interview notes.

Passed the bar exam but scored 2 out of 5 on the AP English test.

2026 — The frontier has moved

Made-up facts still happen but much less often.

Challenging mathematics problems are being solved.

Still bad at telling time on analog clocks.

In the 2023 study, people couldn’t tell which side of the frontier a task was on. The edge keeps moving, so you have to keep testing it.

Where have you found the jagged frontier? What has AI done that surprised you, either way?

Dell’Acqua et al. (2023), Navigating the Jagged Technological Frontier, 758 BCG consultants. Mollick (9 Nov 2026), Fable 5.2 and Jagged AGI, One Useful Thing.

What you bring to the decision

Deciding which side of the frontier a task sits on, and what to hand over, takes exactly these four things.

1

Deep knowledge

Of your field and your workplace

2

Wide knowledge

Connections across courses, communities and lived experience

3

Taste

Knowing what good looks like for this audience

4

Agency

Knowing you can do things, and doing them

They’re why what you already know matters, even with AI in the room.

Source: Ethan Mollick, Co-Existence: The Next Phase of AI (Portfolio, 2026).

Uses that keep your thinking yours

So how should you use it? In each of these the thinking stays with you. The AI changes the shape of your material, handles a mechanical chore, or offers suggestions you choose between.

Notes→Table

Convert formats

Notes into a table, a table into a chart, a transcript into clean formatting. The content stays yours.

3 PDFs→1 PDF1 HTML

Work with files

Merge or split PDFs, clean up a messy spreadsheet, rename a folder of files, convert to HTML.

Draft→3 ideas

Feedback, not rewriting

Ask for suggestions and reasons. You decide what changes.

“Don’t rewrite this. Give me three suggestions and say why.”

More ideas

  • Rehearse — have it play a community member or a skeptical board member
  • Check plain language — ask what a Grade 8 reader would trip on, then fix it yourself
  • Quiz yourself on a reading, then answer without it
  • Find gaps — ask “What am I missing?” about your plan
  • Get asked — have it list the questions it would need answered first
  • Tidy notes — turn meeting notes into an action list you check
  • Format references, then spot-check every entry
  • Chart your data — make a chart from numbers you already have
  • Draft alt text for your figures, then edit it for accuracy
  • Improve your prompt — ask for feedback on how you asked

Want more ideas? Brainstorm some yourself first, then with an AI tool. That way you can tell which ones are new.

Your turn — me, AI or another person?