Concept · Agent design

Agent autonomy levels, from L0 to L5

Not every task needs a fully autonomous agent. A simple ladder from L0 (a person does everything) to L5 (the agent acts unsupervised) helps you pick the right level per workflow.

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Autonomy is a dial, not a switch

The most common mistake is treating AI as all-or-nothing: either a person does the work or the agent does it alone. In practice, autonomy is a dial you set per task based on risk, reversibility, and volume.

• Turn the autonomy level up only when evidence justifies it.
• Different workflows can sit at different levels in the same company.
• Starting low and moving up is safer than starting high and pulling back.

The levels, L0 to L5

A simple ladder gives a shared language for deciding how much control to delegate. The names matter less than the question: who decides, and who approves?

• L0 — A person does the task; AI does not step in.
• L1 — AI suggests; the person decides and executes.
• L2 — AI drafts an action; the person approves before it runs.
• L3 — AI executes within limits; the person reviews by sampling and exception.
• L4 — AI executes and only escalates uncertain cases to a person.
• L5 — AI acts without routine supervision, with audit after the fact.

Choosing the level for a workflow

The right level depends on what happens if the agent is wrong. The higher the risk or the lower the reversibility, the lower on the ladder you start.

• Is the action reversible? If not, keep human approval.
• What is the cost of an error? High cost, lower level.
• Is there enough volume to make automation worth it?
• Do evals show stable accuracy on this workflow?

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