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AI trolley problems

Sixty dilemmas about AI at work, in five tracks. Pick the track closest to your job, make twelve calls, then read a short report on where your choices leave you.

How it works

Pull the lever, or don't

1. Pick a track

   Boards, leaders, operations, agent builders or users. Each track has its own twelve dilemmas and its own six things to score.

2. Make the call

   Most dilemmas are a lever: pull it or do nothing. The rest are open thought experiments where you choose between two positions. After each one you see what happened, and what would have happened the other way.

3. Read your report

   An archetype, six scores, takeaways drawn from your own calls and what to put in place first. Print it or copy it. Your answers stay in your browser.

Five tracks · 12 dilemmas each

Choose your track

Track 1 · 8 levers, 4 thought experiments

AI for boards

Twelve calls about accountability, risk appetite and oversight, the decisions only a board can make.

For chairs, non-executive and executive directors, trustees and audit and risk committees.

Start the boards track →Track 2 · 8 levers, 4 thought experiments

AI for leaders

Twelve calls about people, pace and where the time AI saves should go.

For executives, heads of service and managers who lead teams through change.

Start the leaders track →Track 3 · 9 levers, 3 thought experiments

AI for operations

Twelve calls about queues, costs, escalation and what happens when the model is unsure.

For service managers, operations leads, contact centre and back-office teams running AI day to day.

Start the operations track →Track 4 · 9 levers, 3 thought experiments

AI for agent builders

Twelve design calls about permissions, approvals, logs, cost and the off switch.

For makers in Copilot Studio, Foundry and similar tools, developers, architects and product owners.

Start the agent builders track →Track 5 · 9 levers, 3 thought experiments

AI for users

Twelve everyday calls about checking, privacy, saying when AI helped and keeping your own skills.

For anyone using Copilot, ChatGPT or another AI assistant in their day-to-day work.

Start the users track →

Question to take awayWhich of these calls is your organisation already making without anyone deciding it?

Inspired by Neal Agarwal's Absurd Trolley Problems. The dilemmas, scoring and reports here are new, written for AI at work.