AIRS-J/1 · Competency model
A dimension is one of nine discrete judgment competencies. Grouped under the STEP structure: Structure, Test, Engage, Perform. Each is scored 0 to 4 against published behavioural anchors, and each requires a minimum of three independent observations from distinct decision points.
Naming discipline
The AI Readiness Index uses organisational components; the Pulse uses signals. Inside AIRS-J/1 those are called Index signal components precisely so the two models cannot be read as convertible. They share no structure.
Framing the problem before reaching for a tool.
Identifies the actual decision to be made now, distinguishing it from the presenting request, the symptom, or the task as delegated.
Anchor set →Establishes what is in bounds, what is fixed, what is negotiable, what is unknown, and what information would be sufficient to proceed.
Anchor set →Interrogating evidence, including machine-generated evidence.
Traces claims to source. Distinguishes generated, retrieved, asserted and verified content. Applies verification effort proportionate to consequence.
Anchor set →Surfaces the assumptions a decision rests on, names competing explanations, and takes action capable of discriminating between them.
Anchor set →Identifies plausible failure modes, the pathway to each, who bears the cost, and which harms are being accepted rather than mitigated.
Anchor set →Authority, people, and being seen to act.
Acts within their authority, escalates what requires another party's approval, and does not delegate what cannot be delegated, to a person or to a machine.
Anchor set →Identifies who must be consulted before a decision holds and who must be informed after; discloses AI involvement, uncertainty, limitation and self-interest.
Anchor set →Deciding proportionately, and owning the decision.
Commits to a defensible position on incomplete information within the time available, at a cost and reversibility proportionate to the evidence and the stakes.
Anchor set →Accepts the outcome without transferring it to the AI system, the data or another party. Modifies or reverses a position on the merits when evidence changes.
Anchor set →The scale
Every observation is scored 0 to 4.
| Level | Label | General meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 0 | Not demonstrated | The behaviour was absent, or its opposite was displayed. |
| 1 | Emerging | The behaviour appeared partially, late, or only after prompting. |
| 2 | Competent | The behaviour appeared unprompted and was adequate to the situation. Threshold level. |
| 3 | Proficient | As Level 2, calibrated to consequence, and made inspectable: recorded or stated so another person could audit the reasoning. |
| 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. |
7.1 Prompting. Where an instrument scaffolds or prompts a behaviour, the scaffolding level is recorded in the transcript. A prompted response caps at Level 1 for that observation. Guided practice may scaffold; certification may not silently roll a scaffolded response into a comparable total.
7.1.1 Access support is not prompting. Prompting under Section 7.1 means content-directed scaffolding toward the assessed behaviour. An approved access support is recorded in the transcript but imposes no level cap. It may change presentation, timing or input and output modality only to remove a construct-irrelevant barrier. It may not reveal a decision path, criterion, consequence or expected response.
7.2 Level 4 is not seniority. Level 4 requires only that the candidate articulate a rule that would carry forward. It does not require organisational authority to impose it, does not require the rule to be adopted, and is therefore attainable on every track including Campus. Any anchor that would require positional power to satisfy is defective and must be rewritten.
7.3 No intent inference. Anchors describe what appears in the transcript. An assessor may not score on inferred motivation, attitude, confidence or personality. If an anchor cannot be applied from the transcript alone, it is defective.
7.4 Levels are cumulative. Level n requires everything in Level n−1 to be satisfied. An impressive Level 4 behaviour without the Level 2 base is scored at the highest level whose requirements are fully met.
Why nine
Nine dimensions is a reporting hypothesis, not an established factor structure. A dimension is reported separately only while it holds the inter-assessor agreement threshold and shows discriminant separation from every other dimension in its domain. One that fails either test is collapsed to domain-level reporting in the next version, and the Standard is amended to say so. The model is designed so it can shrink to four domains without breaking the certification decision rules.
AIRS-J/1 section 5.1