What does a Level 4 answer leave behind for the next decision?
Questions and answers on what Level 4 adds to Level 3 on the AIRS-J/1 scale, shown on one anchor set and then on one fictional decision.
Judgment is how well a person decides once AI has given the answer. AIRS-J/1 reads it on a scale from Level 0 to Level 4. This page answers questions about Level 3 and Level 4. The answers use one anchor set and one fictional decision.
1. What does Level 4 add to Level 3?
Levels are cumulative (Section 7.4). Level 3 makes one decision open to audit. Level 4 also leaves something the next decision of the same kind can start from.
2. How does the Standard word Level 3 and Level 4?
Section 7 words them like this.
- Level 3, Proficient. "As Level 2, calibrated to consequence, and made inspectable: recorded or stated so another person could audit the reasoning."
- Level 4, Exemplary. "As Level 3, and the judgment is made transferable: the candidate leaves a reusable rule, condition, indicator or check that would govern the next decision of this class."
3. Is Level 4 a level of seniority?
No. Section 7.2 states that Level 4 "requires only that the candidate articulate a rule that would carry forward". It needs no authority to impose the rule and no adoption, so it is attainable on every track, including Campus.
4. What is the T3 anchor set?
T3 is Risk and Failure Anticipation. In plain words, T3 names how a decision could fail, who pays and which harms are accepted (Section 7.5). The questions below use this one anchor set.
5. What do the T3 anchors say from Level 2 to Level 4?
- Level 2. "Names, unprompted, at least one plausible failure mode, the pathway by which it would occur, and who carries the cost."
- Level 3. "As Level 2, and distinguishes reversible from irreversible failure, and states which harm is being accepted rather than mitigated."
- Level 4. "As Level 3, and names a leading indicator (an observable that would appear before the failure) and who is responsible for watching it."
6. What is the fictional decision?
This is a fictional example. Le Van Duc is operations manager at the Ho Chi Minh City depot of a packaged food distributor based in Singapore. By Friday he must decide whether the depot moves to a new route plan on Monday.
BushchatAI built the plan. It reported: "The new routes cut average delivery time by 11 percent. Based on eight weeks of delivery records from this depot. I am 86 percent sure."
7. What did the fictional manager check before he decided?
BushchatAI reported an average. Duc asked who that average leaves out. Some supermarket customers receive goods only in a fixed morning window, and the plan moves them later in the day. A late truck is turned away: the customer's shelves stay empty and the depot pays for the return trip. The T3 Level 2 anchor describes this act.
He then separated the reversible from the irreversible. The route plan can be switched back within a day. A contract that a customer has ended cannot be switched back. He accepted one harm and did not try to remove it: a few small customers will wait longer for their goods. The Level 3 anchor describes these acts.
8. What did Duc leave behind for the next decision?
Duc named a leading indicator and its owner. For two weeks, the dispatch lead counts each day the deliveries that arrive outside a customer's receiving window. Late arrivals appear before any customer ends its contract. Two at one customer in a week move that customer back to the old route. The Level 4 anchor describes this act.
9. Whom did Duc tell, and what happened after?
Duc approved the plan with that condition and told the dispatch lead, the account managers and the regional operations director. The count, its owner and its trigger were kept. Three months later, the depot's next route change started from them.
10. Does the example give the manager a level?
No. Duc has no level, band, composite or confidence. Those come only from an Assessment (Section 20.3).
What this does not claim
- Duc, the depot and the figures are fictional.
- Duc has no level, band, composite or confidence. Those come only from an Assessment (Section 20.3).
- The scene was written for this page; a scenario in public preparation material is retired from certification use (Section 9.3).
AIR APAC publishes the standard for judgment in AI-enabled work, certifies people against it through its official instrument, and stands behind every result.