{
  "schema": "vedokrok.public-item.v1",
  "release_id": "MHC-RPUB-20260920-75ad787a",
  "url": "/knowledge/do-not-standardize-an-ai-ritual-before-testing-it",
  "id": "MHC-D-RESEARCH-0383",
  "version": "0.1.0",
  "title": "Do not standardize an AI ritual before testing it",
  "summary": "Structure can add friction without adding judgment.",
  "kind": "principle",
  "body": "Pilot the protocol against ordinary AI use on real work before making it policy. Measure output quality, throughput, coordination cost and where the structure actually helps. Keep only the steps that solve an observed failure mode. A formal workflow deserves the same evidence as the AI tool it is supposed to improve.",
  "limits": [
    "The 2026 field experiment had important design limitations; use it as a warning against untested scaffolding, not proof that structured collaboration is bad."
  ],
  "topics": [
    "union-ai-assisted-thinking-work"
  ],
  "intents": [],
  "source_ids": [
    "RS-26BD913972C4F436"
  ],
  "evidence": [
    {
      "claim": "A 2026 field experiment found that one structured pair-based AI-use protocol was associated with lower document quality and substantially lower production than unstructured use.",
      "source_id": "RS-26BD913972C4F436",
      "role": "supports",
      "note": "The authors report important design limitations; the finding warns against assuming protocol structure is beneficial, not against all collaborative protocols.",
      "locator": "Abstract"
    }
  ],
  "use_when": [
    "A team wants to mandate a structured AI-use protocol because it sounds disciplined or collaborative."
  ],
  "avoid_when": [
    "The 2026 field experiment had important design limitations; use it as a warning against untested scaffolding, not proof that structured collaboration is bad."
  ],
  "example": "Before requiring every document to be co-written by paired employees with AI, compare that process with ordinary individual AI-assisted work on representative documents.",
  "check": "The protocol survives because it improves an observed outcome, not because it looks rigorous on a process diagram.",
  "sources": [
    {
      "id": "RS-26BD913972C4F436",
      "title": "Scaffolding Human-AI Collaboration: A Field Experiment on Behavioral Protocols and Cognitive Reframing",
      "url": "https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/publication/human-ai-collaboration-field-experiment/"
    }
  ],
  "relations": [
    {
      "from": "MHC-D-RESEARCH-0383",
      "to": "MHC-D-RESEARCH-0384",
      "type": "useful_with",
      "url": "/knowledge/test-ai-as-thought-partner-on-the-work-that-needs-judgment"
    }
  ],
  "collections": [
    {
      "id": "RC-433FB61AA7D7AF43",
      "title": "Use AI where it helps, and keep the thinking that still matters",
      "url": "/collections/use-ai-where-it-helps-and-keep-the-thinking-that-still-matters"
    }
  ]
}