Mastering CI Maturity: Understanding Level 5 and How to Move to Level 6
In a previous article, I introduced a capability maturity model for organizational adoption and use of AI and other collaborative technologies (aka “collaborative intelligence” or CI).
This article focuses on Maturity Level 5, named “Transformed.” It will:
provide more detail about the observable characteristics at this level,
present strategies and actions that will enable organizations to move to Maturity Level 6.
The final article in this series will focus on Maturity Level 6, after which I will provide an assessment tool that helps organizations determine their current maturity level.
When organizations have been “optimized” for CI (Level 4), the transformation into an AI-enabled organization (Level 5) is not too far away. Thus, several of the organizational characteristics of companies at Level 5 will be the same or very similar to those at Level 4. The main distinction is the use of autonomous systems across the organization.
Characteristics of Organizations with "Transformed" Collaborative Intelligence
Organizational Awareness/Knowledge of CI Technologies
At Maturity Level 5, awareness of CI technologies is embedded throughout the organization. Leaders, teams, and employees maintain an in-depth, evolving understanding of the latest CI advancements, focusing on how these technologies can directly contribute to strategic goals.
Employees actively engage in CI learning programs, with CI technologies autonomously identifying and recommending relevant training based on role-specific needs. This continuous knowledge reinforcement ensures that all levels of the organization are equipped to recognize and harness new CI developments as they emerge. At the same time, human leaders oversee the strategic alignment of these learning initiatives with long-term organizational objectives.
CI-Related Skills/Experience and CI-Specific Skills Management Processes
CI-related skills are deeply integrated into talent management processes, ensuring that new and existing employees develop and refine skills critical to collaborative intelligence. The organization has a dynamic skills management system where CI technologies autonomously assess skill gaps, suggest personalized development paths, and assign learning tasks.
Human talent managers focus on strategic oversight and long-term skill requirements, allowing CI systems to track day-to-day development and skills. This framework ensures a continuously evolving workforce with skills aligned with current CI capabilities and emerging technologies.
Influence of CI on Business Strategy
CI is foundational to the organization’s strategic direction. Autonomous CI systems continuously analyze market trends, operational data, and competitor activities, providing strategic insights that inform executive decision-making and long-term planning.
Human leaders collaborate with these CI systems, using their insights to refine and adapt strategies dynamically. CI systems can execute routine strategic adjustments autonomously, while human oversight remains focused on high-level strategic direction and innovation, ensuring that the organization stays agile and ahead in a competitive environment.
CI Technologies Deployed
At Maturity Level 5, CI technologies are omnipresent, embedded across all critical business functions, and capable of autonomously driving key decisions. These systems analyze real-time data, independently making and executing routine decisions, including task assignments and performance optimizations.
Human roles are redefined to focus on strategic oversight, complex decision-making, and addressing ethical considerations, while CI systems seamlessly manage operational tasks. This integrated deployment of CI technologies enables the organization to scale efficiently and remain responsive to changes in the business environment.
CI-Enabled Business Processes, Job Designs, and Team Structures
Business processes, job designs, and team structures are fully transformed to enable seamless human-machine collaboration and machine autonomy. Processes are designed to allow CI systems to independently handle routine tasks, analyze complex data, and make real-time decisions, which they execute without human intervention. In this structure, human roles focus on high-level oversight, strategic planning, and handling unique situations that require judgment, creativity, or ethical considerations.
Team structures adapt dynamically to CI capabilities, allowing machines to autonomously assign tasks and provide updates directly to human counterparts as needed. Human workers and CI systems collaborate through established protocols that optimize each other's strengths, fostering an agile work environment where CI and human agents continuously support each other’s tasks for greater productivity and innovation.
CI-Enabled or Embedded Products/Services
The organization’s products and services are fully CI-enabled, with embedded intelligence and autonomous capabilities that enhance value for end-users and the organization. These products and services leverage CI to continuously adapt to real-time user behaviors, environment changes, and operational data. They respond to inputs and proactively optimize performance, predict user needs, and offer dynamic features that evolve based on usage patterns and contextual insights.
Human oversight focuses on strategic direction and innovation, while CI systems autonomously handle routine updates, error detection, and performance enhancements. This allows the organization to deliver high-value, adaptive products and services that distinguish them in the market by continually learning and improving without requiring significant manual intervention.
CI-Aware Management Process/Metrics
At Maturity Level 5, management processes and metrics are fully adapted to a CI-driven organization. Metrics track both human and CI system performance, emphasizing collaborative outcomes and autonomous system contributions. Key performance indicators (KPIs) assess CI’s impact on strategic objectives, operational efficiency, and decision-making quality, creating a clear view of CI’s organizational value.
Management processes leverage CI systems to autonomously analyze performance data, identify improvement areas, and suggest adjustments. These processes support a feedback loop where CI systems continuously optimize based on real-time metrics, minimizing the need for human intervention in routine evaluations. Human oversight remains focused on strategic decision-making and refining CI-enabled metrics as technologies evolve.
CI Governance Processes and Policies
CI governance is embedded across all organizational levels, supporting secure, ethical, and compliant CI operations. Governance policies cover autonomous decision-making capabilities, outlining protocols for accountability, transparency, and risk management. CI systems are monitored to ensure they operate within established guidelines, with automated mechanisms for detecting and addressing policy deviations.
The organization employs adaptive governance structures that evolve with CI advancements, ensuring policies remain relevant as new capabilities emerge. Human governance roles focus on overseeing policy refinement, while CI systems autonomously track compliance, manage routine audits, and flag significant issues for human review.
Organizational Culture
The organizational culture aligns with a CI-driven environment, fostering collaboration between human employees and autonomous systems. The culture values continuous learning, adaptability, and data-informed decision-making, encouraging employees to rely on CI insights while contributing strategic thinking and creativity. Employees view CI as essential partners in achieving organizational goals, with trust in autonomous systems for executing routine decisions and assigning tasks.
Cultural incentives promote innovation in human-CI collaboration, rewarding employees for identifying new applications of CI and improving human-machine workflows. Leadership reinforces this culture by actively demonstrating CI’s role in the organization’s success and supporting employees in their roles alongside CI systems.
Data Models, Architectures, Workflows, and Management Processes/Policies
At Maturity Level 5, data models, architectures, workflows, and management processes are fully integrated to support a CI-driven organization. Data architectures are designed for real-time data flows, enabling CI systems to autonomously access, process, and act on data as needed. These infrastructures support seamless collaboration between CI systems and human employees, ensuring data availability, accuracy, and relevance for automated decision-making and human analysis.
Workflows are adaptive, allowing CI systems to autonomously update data models based on new information and performance insights. Management processes oversee data quality, compliance, and security. Human oversight focuses on strategic improvements to data processes, while CI systems handle routine data management tasks, ensuring efficient, secure, and scalable CI operations.
Computing and Cybersecurity Infrastructure
The computing and cybersecurity infrastructure is fully equipped to support a CI-driven organization, enabling secure and efficient operations for both autonomous and collaborative CI systems. The highly scalable and resilient infrastructure allows CI systems to handle complex computations and large data sets in real-time while maintaining robust cybersecurity measures to protect sensitive data and ensure compliance.
Autonomous monitoring systems are in place to detect and respond to security threats without human intervention, and CI-driven diagnostic tools identify potential infrastructure improvements. Human oversight is primarily focused on strategic cybersecurity planning and infrastructure upgrades. At the same time, CI systems manage routine security monitoring and computing resource allocation, ensuring a secure and adaptable environment for all CI applications.
Key Strategies/Actions to Reach Maturity Level 6
At Maturity Level 5, organizations have transformed into CI-driven enterprises. The only remaining challenge is designing and implementing organizational mechanisms to ensure the organization stays at the forefront of collaborative intelligence advancements so that it can renew itself continually, eliminating the need for future transformations.
Organizations that want to move to Level 6 should take the following actions:
Establish Autonomous CI-Driven Innovation Hubs
Develop Strategic CI Alliance Networks
Establish Autonomous CI Resource Allocation Systems
Introduce Predictive CI Lifecycle Management Systems
Establish Embedded CI Feedback Loops for Strategic Insight
Establish CI Innovation Hubs
Create innovation hubs within the organization where teams can independently experiment with emerging CI technologies, techniques, and applications. These hubs would function as exploratory units that continuously test, assess and prototype new CI-driven processes, products, and services. Managerial oversight is only needed to evaluate successful prototypes and decide on their broader organizational implementation. This structure allows the organization to stay agile and ready to integrate the latest CI advancements at scale.
Develop Strategic CI Alliance Networks
Form alliances with external CI leaders, such as AI-focused research institutions, startups, and industry consortiums, to access and co-develop cutting-edge CI innovations. This goes beyond standard partnerships by creating a decentralized network of CI intelligence that operates autonomously and funnels relevant breakthroughs directly into the organization. Through these alliances, CI systems can autonomously evaluate and integrate external CI advancements in real time, enabling the organization to stay aligned with the frontier of CI innovation while minimizing reliance on internal resources alone.
Establish Autonomous CI Resource Allocation Systems
Develop CI-driven resource allocation systems that autonomously manage and optimize the organization’s investments in new CI technologies, R&D, and operational scaling. These systems would dynamically assess current CI capabilities, market demands, and potential technology improvements, redistributing resources in real time to areas with the highest projected impact. Human oversight focuses on strategic priorities and longer-term investments. CI systems autonomously handle resource adjustments to ensure funding, staffing, and infrastructure align with evolving CI objectives and technological advancements.
Introduce Predictive CI Lifecycle Management Systems
Create lifecycle management systems that anticipate the end-of-life and obsolescence of current CI technologies and autonomously initiate the replacement or upgrade process. These systems would analyze performance data, emerging technological trends, and operational impacts to predict when a CI system or technology will likely reach its limit. By autonomously initiating technology upgrades or replacements, the organization always operates with optimal CI tools and capabilities, eliminating downtime and reducing the need for reactive overhauls.
Establish Embedded CI Feedback Loops for Strategic Insight
To ensure ongoing alignment with the business environment, implement CI-driven feedback loops that autonomously gather and analyze data from market trends, user feedback, and competitive intelligence. These feedback loops provide strategic insights to the organization in real time, allowing CI systems to proactively adjust business strategies, product offerings, and operational processes. Human leaders can use this continuously refreshed intelligence to steer high-level strategy, while CI systems autonomously manage day-to-day adjustments based on feedback.
Collaborative Intelligence is a Transformativ, LLC publication. If you’d like to learn more about how to become an AI-powered enterprise, please contact us here.