Definition Delegation and verification is splitting work between human and AI through Plan, Delegate, Verify, Review, bounding every AI task and checking everything it returns.
Plan → Delegate → Verify → Review is the canonical sequence for this skill.
Why it matters with AI
In a field experiment with consultants, tasks inside AI's frontier were done in greater number, faster and better, while on a task outside it consultants were 19 percentage points less likely to be correct. Knowing where to delegate decides the result.
How CIT teaches it: The delegation table and AI-use log
Students break a task into pieces, assign each to human, AI or both, and write the check for every AI piece in advance. Afterwards they review the AI-use log for any check that was skipped.
What proficiency looks like at each age
- Elementary Says which parts an AI or an adult helped with and which they did themselves.
- Middle school Writes a delegation table and logs, for each AI output, how it was checked and whether it was kept, revised or rejected.
- High school Explains from their own project where the AI was and was not reliable, and adjusts the delegation plan for the next one.
Four recorded levels
- 1 Emerging Does it when an adult walks through the steps.
- 2 Developing Does it alone on familiar tasks; needs support on new ones.
- 3 Proficient Shows the grade-band indicator on an unfamiliar task, unaided.
- 4 Extending Teaches it to others or carries it into a new field.
Where this skill is used in the CIT Loop
- 5. Critique Try to break what was built and ask whom it could disadvantage.
Evidence
- Dell'Acqua, F., McFowland, E., Mollick, E. R., Lifshitz-Assaf, H., Kellogg, K., Rajendran, S., Krayer, L., Candelon, F. & Lakhani, K. R. (2023). Navigating the Jagged Technological Frontier: Field Experimental Evidence of the Effects of AI on Knowledge Worker Productivity and Quality. Harvard Business School Working Paper 24-013. Inside AI's frontier, consultants completed 12.2% more tasks, 25.1% faster, with more than 40% higher quality; outside it they were 19 percentage points less likely to be correct.
- OECD & European Commission (2026). Empowering Learners for the Age of AI: An AI Literacy Framework for Primary and Secondary Education. Final version, launched 18 June 2026. AI literacy is more than tool use: four domains (Engage with AI, Create with AI, Manage AI, Shape AI) and 19 competences.
Courses that train this skill
- Space engineering with AI · What must be true for a satellite to stay up?
- Apps for real users · Who has this problem and why?
Related skills
A1 Specification & PromptcraftA3 Trust CalibrationA4 Ethical & Futures Judgment
First Principles Thinking: Every lesson opens with one first-principles question. Metacognition: Every lesson closes with a teach-back or a calibration check.