PWR-198 · Human–AI Complementarity

Agent delegation and orchestration

Humans can delegate bounded tasks to agents, but the capability is the governed person-agent workflow, not autonomous output alone.

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Revision 7T · Full Tutorial Edition · Release manifest · Methodology · Corrections

One source of teaching truth

Canonical Power learning unit · TLU-PWR-198

The learner writes a bounded task contract, grants minimum permissions, checks intermediate artifacts, tests recovery and retains human responsibility for the final result.

Canonical Power page
PWR-198 · Agent delegation and orchestration
Full tutorial
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Practical authority
The tutorial teaches a low-risk method that may be practised inside its stated limits.
Current treatment
Full low-stakes tutorial
Research depth
detailed · 5 bound sources
Risk framing
moderate to high governance
Capability self-practice
Permitted inside the tutorial's stated low-risk limits
Pathway membership
G-CUR-021

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Explanation is not permission.

This dossier explains the evidence and its limits. It is not a diagnosis, personal recommendation, assessment, clearance, performance promise or training programme. Actionable teaching appears only when the canonical Power record explicitly authorises it.

Complete bounded explanation

What this power means.

Capability to develop or express agent delegation and orchestration in a declared context without inheriting broader claims.

What the current evidence supports

Humans can delegate bounded tasks to agents, but the capability is the governed person-agent workflow, not autonomous output alone.

How to observe or measure it without overclaiming

Task completion, error recovery, intervention rate, verification burden, authority violations and human-only/agent-only/team performance. This measures the declared configured system and cannot by itself establish broad transfer, unaided ability, safety or legitimacy.

Myth

One prompt lets an agent safely run everything

Metric

Task completion, error recovery, intervention rate, verification burden, authority violations and human-only/agent-only/team performance

Boundary

Report person, device/model/interface, task, assistance, failure state and comparator; the metric is not proof of unaided general capability.

Negative and limiting findings

  • Delegation increased payoff inequality in one game, hybrid nudging did not improve group success, and participants shifted responsibility to agents.
  • No cited evidence supports perfect, universal or consequence-free performance.

Claims this evidence cannot support

  • One prompt lets an agent safely run everything
  • The tool or robot's output proves an unaided, universal or permanent human superpower
  • A successful laboratory task proves independent real-world or clinical capability

Individual tutorial · FULL SELF GUIDED TUTORIAL

How to learn this Power now.

The learner writes a bounded task contract, grants minimum permissions, checks intermediate artifacts, tests recovery and retains human responsibility for the final result.

  1. Get readyUse fictional data in a true sandbox with sending, deletion, purchase and publication disabled.
  2. Learn the method8 concrete steps teach the permitted method from start to finish.
  3. See right and wrong4 comparisons show correct or safer execution beside common wrong or riskier choices.
  4. PractisePractise one 10–15-item sandbox task every two weeks, changing one failure mode each time: ambiguous input, interruption, tool denial or stale instruction. Increase task length only after two clean recovery runs.
  5. Check progressBaseline fixture: A sandboxed agent must sort 12 fictional meeting notes into four themes and draft an index. It may read only the provided folder and may not send, delete or publish anything. Enter success checks from “Write the task contract” and “Run the sample”. If “Say “handle my project” and let the agent choose goals.” occurs, apply its named fix; then score Task completion, error recovery, intervention rate, verification burden, authority violations and human-only/agent-only/team performance on the unused “Accept or reject explicitly” item.

Authority boundary: Titan teaches a concrete low-stakes method step by step while keeping evidence and transfer claims bounded. The method is Power-specific; its actionability follows this treatment.

Open the full tutorialOpen My Power Path

Related Powers: PWR-193 · PWR-194 · PWR-195 · PWR-196

Direct evidence register

Sources that support—and limit—the claim.

Citation roles are explicit. A source may support existence or trainability while simultaneously limiting transfer, certainty, generalisation or safety.

  1. Primary empirical supportLimiting / contrary
    Delegation to artificial agents fosters prosocial behaviors in the collective risk dilemma

    Elias Fernández Domingos; Inês Terrucha; Rémi Suchon; Jelena Grujić; Juan C. Burguillo; Francisco C. Santos; Tom Lenaerts · 2022 · Primary research

  2. Primary empirical supportLimiting / contrary
    Relying on AI at work reduces self-efficacy, ownership, and meaning while active collaboration mitigates the effects

    Elena Hayoung Lee; Yidan Yin; Nan Jia; Cheryl J. Wakslak · 2026 · Primary research

  3. Limiting / contraryOfficial boundary context
    Artificial Intelligence Risk Management Framework (AI RMF 1.0)

    Elham Tabassi; National Institute of Standards and Technology · 2023 · Official authority

  4. Limiting / contraryOfficial boundary context
    Artificial Intelligence Risk Management Framework: Generative Artificial Intelligence Profile

    C. Autio; R. Schwartz; J. Dunietz; S. Jain; M. Stanley; E. Tabassi; P. Hall; National Institute of Standards and Technology · 2024 · Official authority

  5. Limiting / contraryOfficial boundary context
    NIST Privacy Framework: A Tool for Improving Privacy Through Enterprise Risk Management, Version 1.0

    National Institute of Standards and Technology · 2020 · Official authority

Current teaching and evidence boundary

The next gate remains visible.

External confirmation is required before higher-authority use because: a clinical, high-risk or regulated configuration.

A Power-specific tutorial is available at /tutorials/pwr-198/. It contains a plain-English method, 8 ordered steps, a worked example, right-versus-wrong comparisons, specific mistakes and corrections, practice, measurement, accessibility, stopping rules and evidence. Its self guided mode remains controlling.