AUTHORITY ARCHITECTURE

THE UNRESOLVED PROBLEM

An AI workflow can act. The accountable person still cannot explain its complete authority boundaries.

It can recommend, decide, approve, communicate, modify, purchase, or execute. Its capability may be visible while the authority behind each action remains implicit.

ADAMS PRINCIPAL GROUP

APG develops methods for keeping people capable and self-governing as technology gains authority. This review applies that work to one consequential AI workflow.

See APG’s Value Propositions in MISSION.

ONE CONSEQUENTIAL AI WORKFLOW

Authority Architecture Review

One consequential AI workflow. One review of who may act, who may intervene, how authority transfers, and who owns the result.

The decision the review supports

The record supports a decision to approve, narrow, pause, redesign, or decline the workflow.

What the work leaves behind

A reviewable working record, grounded in the available evidence and open to challenge and revision.

  • Scope and evidence cover
  • Authority and action map
  • Intervention and escalation map
  • Custody and transfer model
  • Failure conditions
  • Proposed interventions
  • Open questions and disagreements

One workflow—not your entire AI strategy.

The engagement is deliberately small enough to examine as a complete authority problem.

  • One workflow.
  • One accountable owner.
  • One current-state review.
  • One challenge pass.
  • One final readout.
  • One reviewable working record.

ILLUSTRATIVE EXAMPLE · NOT A CLIENT RESULT

A purchase-order path, made visible.

A generic AI procurement workflow shows the authority relationships the review would trace. It is not evidence of validation or a completed engagement.

SAMPLE AUTHORITY MAP · AI-ASSISTED PROCUREMENT
DELEGATES Accountable procurement owner

Defines the workflow’s scope and recommendation authority.

RECOMMENDS AI procurement workflow

Evaluates options and proposes a purchase.

AUTHORIZES EXECUTION Named approval boundary

A designated approver releases the purchase order.

OWNS THE RESULT Accountable procurement owner

Remains answerable for the consequential purchase.

PAUSE + REVIEW Relevant domain authorities

May pause or review the workflow within their jurisdiction.

TRANSFER Reauthorization required

A model, vendor, or role change returns the delegation for review and explicit reassignment.

Readiness

APG needs one workflow, its consequential result, the responsible roles, and the present decision point.

LOCAL-MEMORY PROTOTYPE Answers remain only in this open page. Nothing is transmitted, stored, or submitted. Use role- and workflow-level descriptions only. Do not enter uploads, credentials, names, contact details, personal information, confidential material, regulated data, sensitive evidence, or real case records.

01Workflow

APG needs one bounded workflow that is operating or concretely documented.

What is the workflow’s current state? Required

One concrete workflow—not a broad strategy or speculative idea.

Nothing has been sent.

What APG examines

The review follows authority through one bounded workflow.

  1. Who authorized action?
  2. Where does advice become execution?
  3. Who may pause, override, refuse, or escalate?
  4. How does authority transfer when people, models, vendors, or roles change?
  5. Who owns the resulting decision or action?

Where the review begins—and where APG stops

Authority

  • APG structures and leads the authority inquiry.
  • The organization retains the final decision and consequences.
  • Domain experts retain authority over legal, technical, security, privacy, compliance, safety, and operational judgments in their own jurisdiction.

Foundational blockers

The review should not begin without all three.

  • No bounded workflow. It cannot yet be described concretely, or relevant participants or evidence are unavailable.
  • No accountable owner.
  • No consequential decision.

Scope mismatches

  • An entire AI strategy.
  • An unbounded transformation program.

Jurisdiction mismatches

  • Certification.
  • Legal opinion.
  • Model or production approval, including implementation.
  • Domain judgment outside APG’s authority.

This is not an audit, certification, model validation, legal opinion, production-readiness assessment, or outcome guarantee.