Complexity & Systems of MeaningGet the book

Part IV

From A(I)DOPTION to A(I)DAPTATION

Which rules must change after the pilot?

The idea, in brief

I distinguish the adoption project from the continuing condition of adaptation. I try to write a grammar for living with AI across organisation, expertise and the individual. I discuss authority in hybrid teams, the shift from product to process in teaching, and the responsibility recalled by Joseph Rotblat.

Here I summarise the chapter’s argument. Below you will find an excerpt from my book and the references I cite there, numbered as in the bibliography.

Companion page reviewed · 17 October 2026

From the book’s companion

An excerpt from my book

Original Italian text, from the chapter opening. · 1 min

In questa ultima parte del mio lavoro sono costretto ad abbandonare la comfort zone nella quale mi ero adagiato in precedenza lavorando per sottrazione e critica al fine di provare a scrivere una grammatica della futura coabitazione, uno strumento che rende possibile l'interlocuzione e la comunicazione senza garantire la qualità della medesima (perché questa dipende da come la si utilizza). Il futuro che possiamo immaginare vedrà probabilmente l'essere umano coinvolto in una coabitazione qualificata con un interlocutore sintetico opaco, mobile e cognitivamente disomogeneo. Questa coabitazione si esprime(rà) simultaneamente su tre piani inscindibili: organizzativo (l'organizzazione che si ridisegna in funzione dell'intensità con cui l'AI passa dall'usare le strutture al ridefinirle), competenziale (a fronte della redistribuzione dei ruoli e delle responsabilità di esecuzione, governo e controllo) e personale/individuale (scoprendosi il soggetto stesso imbrigliato, passivamente od attivamente, in una griglia sociale di tipo nuovo) facendo coincidere l'emancipazione dei singoli con il vantaggio competitivo sociale ed organizzativo, oppure non facendoli coincidere affatto.

My note

It is the chapter I had to rewrite the most, and the one that made me change the whole design of the book. When I began writing the material that later flowed into this book, A(I)DOPTION was still a barely formalised practice, one worth structuring in methodological terms. Partly thanks (I won't deny it) to my evangelising efforts, a path took shape and was taken up that has run through many of the companies I deal with. And so on many occasions I found myself facing the question of “...and then?”... For me it was clear that it would all end in “pizza e fichi” (that is, in a mutual adaptation — or rather, tolerance)... but I tried to make it formal.

The chapter’s infographics

Enlarge each plate to inspect it. The overview and extended text above explain the chapter in text; they are not a word-for-word transcription of the images.

Chapter infographic map #

Check and compare

References I cite in this chapter

I have gathered the references cited in this chapter, preserving the entries and numbering of my book’s bibliography. Links are included only where supplied in the book.

  • [87] Mollick, Ethan. Co-Intelligence: Living and Working with AI. Portfolio/Penguin, New York, 2024.
  • [32] Dell'Acqua, Fabrizio, Edward McFowland III, Ethan R. Mollick, Hila Lifshitz-Assaf, Katherine C. Kellogg, Saran Rajendran, Lisa Krayer, François Candelon e Karim R. Lakhani. Navigating the Jagged Technological Frontier: Field Experimental Evidence of the Effects of AI on Knowledge Worker Productivity and Quality. Harvard Business School Technology & Operations Management Unit Working Paper No. 24-013 / The Wharton School Research Paper, 2023. DOI: 10.2139/ssrn.4573321.
  • [88] Mollick, Ethan. Co-Existence: The Next Phase of AI. Portfolio/Penguin, New York, in uscita 2026.
  • [85] MIT Sloan Executive Education. "From AI Adoption to Adaptation: How Organizational Evolutionary Fitness Will Shape Leadership". MIT Sloan Executive Education Blog, 2025. ↗
  • [35] Eccles, Robert G. "Hybrid Intelligence Teams: A Theoretical Framework for Human-AI Collaboration in Knowledge Work". SSRN Working Paper n. 5792345, dicembre 2025. ↗
  • [12] Benanti, Paolo. Le macchine sapienti: Intelligenze artificiali e decisioni umane. Marietti, Bologna, 2018.
  • [46] Floridi, Luciano. The Ethics of Artificial Intelligence: Principles, Challenges, and Opportunities. Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2023.
  • [116] Sloman, Steven e Philip Fernbach. The Knowledge Illusion: Why We Never Think Alone. Riverhead Books, New York, 2020.
  • [56] Gmyrek, Paweł, Janine Berg, David Bescond et al. Generative AI and Jobs: A Refined Global Index of Occupational Exposure. ILO Working Paper 140, International Labour Organization, Ginevra, 2025.
  • [62] Hillebrand, Luis, Sebastian Raisch e Jonathan Schad. "Managing with Artificial Intelligence: An Integrative Framework". Academy of Management Annals, 19(1):343–375, 2025.
  • [76] Lee, Min Kyung, Daniel Kusbit, Evan Metsky e Laura Dabbish. "Working with Machines: The Impact of Algorithmic and Data-Driven Management on Human Workers". Proceedings of CHI 2015, 2015.
  • [109] Rosenblat, Alex. Uberland: How Algorithms Are Rewriting the Rules of Work. University of California Press, 2018.
  • [28] Christin, Angèle. "Algorithms in Practice: Comparing Web Journalism and Criminal Justice". Big Data & Society, 2017.
  • [23] Brynjolfsson, Erik, Danielle Li e Lindsey R. Raymond. "Generative AI at Work". Quarterly Journal of Economics, 2025.
  • [84] Microsoft. 2025: The Year the Frontier Firm Is Born. Work Trend Index Annual Report, Microsoft, 2025. ↗
  • [39] European Commission Joint Research Centre. DigComp 3.0: The Digital Competence Framework for Citizens with AI Integration. European Commission Joint Research Centre, 2025.
  • [123] Vaccaro, Michelle, Abdullah Almaatouq e Thomas W. Malone. "When Combinations of Humans and AI Are Useful: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis". Nature Human Behaviour, 8:2293–2303, 2024.
  • [19] Bloom, Benjamin S. Taxonomy of Educational Objectives. David McKay Company, 1956.
  • [70] Kosmyna, Nataliya, Eugene Hauptmann, Ye Tong Yuan, Jessica Situ, Xian-Hao Liao, Ashly Vivian Beresnitzky, Iris Braunstein e Pattie Maes. Your Brain on ChatGPT: Accumulation of Cognitive Debt when Using an AI Assistant for Essay Writing Task. arXiv preprint arXiv:2506.08872, 2025.
  • [122] UNESCO. AI Competency Framework for Teachers e AI Competency Framework for Students. UNESCO, Paris, 2024.
  • [92] OECD. Introducing the OECD AI Capability Indicators. OECD Publishing, Paris, 2025. DOI: 10.1787/be745f04-en.
  • [111] Rotblat, Joseph. "Remember Your Humanity: Nobel Peace Prize Lecture". Oslo, 10 dicembre 1995.
A term is unfamiliar? Open the glossary →

Bring it into your work

Which rules must change after the pilot?

Write down one real example, identify what you would delegate and name who will check the result.

Use the worksheet

Connected ideas

is introduced by

Onto-ethics of collaboration

from onto-ethics to the frontier of adaptation

introduces

Homo A(I)DAPTANS

from the frontier to the subject who inhabits it

is in tension with

Homo A(I)DAPTANS

being able to do more vs having to do more

contributes to

Integration framework

anticipates the framework's four contact points

contributes to

The formula of meaning

r — responsibility (the iso-Hippocratic lesson)

View these connections on the map →

Choose your edition

Keep reading in the book

Riccardo Bovetti · Essay · English edition. Purchase and current availability on Amazon.

Paperback on Amazon ↗

The links open the store; they do not purchase the book.