The Co-Intelligence Ladder

Janine Dormiendo
5 hours ago
3 min read

A Simple Progression Model for AI-Native Performance

Most teams now don’t lack AI awareness. They lack shared fluency in how to work with it collectively, consistently, confidently, and without friction.

The result?

AI shows up sporadically. Some use it deeply. Some avoid it. And teamwide behaviours drift, even when the tools are in place.

That’s not a tooling problem. It’s a capability gap.

To close that gap, we use a behavioural model we call The Co-Intelligence Ladder.

It’s a simple way to assess how far along your team’s human–AI collaboration really is, and what’s needed to move to the next level.

Because in AI-native organisations, co-intelligence is not a bonus skill.

It’s the baseline for how high-quality work gets done.

What “Co-Intelligence” Actually Means

Co-intelligence is not a toolset.

It’s not a prompt library.

It’s not about “using AI more”.

It’s the human capability to think with AI, to design workflows, decisions, and outcomes where human judgement and AI reasoning operate in concert. It’s the third pillar of the Envisago AI Capability System™, alongside Cognitive Profiles and Domain Fluency.

In practice, co-intelligence looks like this:

A strategist uses AI to surface unseen patterns, then decides when to apply creative judgement.
An ops lead breaks a complex process into steps, deciding where AI adds speed, and where people ensure quality.
A CX team rewrites their playbooks: AI drafts the baseline, humans fine-tune for nuance, tone, and care.

It’s how humans and AI think together.

And in an AI-native organisation, that’s not an edge case, it’s standard work.

But co-intelligence doesn’t switch on overnight. It matures.

So we’ve created a simple model to describe that progression:

The Co-Intelligence Ladder

A behavioural maturity model for AI-native teams

Behaviour matures across four core levels — not defined by tools.

Level 1: Awareness

“I know AI exists, but it’s not part of how I work.”

AI is separate from core workflows.
Individuals may be curious, but lack fluency.
Decisions and tasks follow legacy patterns.
AI is optional, not embedded.

Typical behaviours:

Avoidance, over-reliance on human effort, duplicated work.
Scepticism or superficial experimentation.

Level 2: Assistance

“I use AI occasionally to speed up small tasks.”

AI supports tasks, but doesn’t shape how work is structured.
Prompting is inconsistent and often shallow.
Human–AI handoffs are unstructured.

Typical behaviours:

Using ChatGPT to draft emails, but rewriting manually.
Asking AI questions, but not trusting the output.
Treating AI as a faster Google, not a thinking partner.

Level 3: Integration

“AI is woven into how I think and work.”

People design tasks with AI in mind, not as an afterthought.
Teams have shared command libraries and consistent prompting habits.
Workflow decisions are shaped by human–AI division of labour.

Typical behaviours:

Breaking down tasks into cognitive steps.
Using AI to test thinking, not just save time.
Delegating repetitive synthesis or exploration to AI, then refining outputs together.

Level 4: Orchestration

“We design how humans and AI think together, on purpose.”

Teams use co-intelligence to structure roles, workflows, and outcomes.
AI is embedded in the operating model, visible, governed, and aligned.
Leadership decisions are guided by clear mental models of when AI leads, when it supports, and when it must be overruled.

Typical behaviours:

Consistent workflow templates that blend AI reasoning with human oversight.
Structured escalation points in AI-assisted decision cycles.
Cultural norms that elevate clarity, discernment, and co-design.

This is the highest rung of the ladder — not because it’s the most complex, but because it’s the most intentional.

How to Move Up the Ladder

Applied learning. Behavioural shift. Strategic support.

Progressing through the Co-Intelligence Ladder requires more than “more tools”. It calls for a systematic shift in how people think, work, and lead with AI.

That’s what our AI Coaching Accelerator™ is designed to do, embedding co-intelligence as a daily habit, not just a concept.

Across six weeks, teams or individuals:

Map their Cognitive Profile — so they know how they think best.
Define where their Domain Fluency matters most — so they know where judgement leads.
Build workflows that express Co-Intelligence — so they can delegate well, think faster, and act with clarity.

We don’t just teach to “use AI better”. We coach to think with AI, reliably — and to lead others into that shift.

By Week 3 of the Accelerator, most teams reach Level 2–3.By Week 6, they’ve built a Team AI-Native Playbook, the behavioural infrastructure of Level 4.

Final Thoughts

The maturity of your AI strategy is not defined by your stack. It’s defined by how your people think.

And thinking with AI, true co-intelligence, is a capability worth designing for.

Let’s explore what aligned AI capability could look like in your organisation.

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