Durable AI Adoption — Protocolized

A practical guide to AI adoption across organizations, developed by the Protocols for Business SIG (SIGP4B) at the Protocol Institute. Presents a five-level adoption maturity model from Shadow (L1) to Planetary (L5), each with governed and cultivated tracks. Documents why AI differs from prior technology paradigms: outputs are probabilistic, failure modes shift with model updates, and meaningful gains require architectural redesign—not just tool deployment. Covers pre-pilot readiness, the Play-to-Protocol lifecycle (Discover → Encode → Prove → Harvest), six emerging business activities (Kit Harvesting, Evals, Forward Deployment, Platform Operations, Risk Stewardship, Context Stabilization), and the shift from worker-seconds to production tokens as the management accounting unit. Includes 14 case studies spanning Samsung (L1 exit), Klarna (L2 failure), Amazon/MeshClaw (measurement gaming), Air Canada chatbot liability, Boom Supersonic (L3 success), Walmart EDI (L4 infrastructure cascade), and electrification/containerization/steam as historical analogies. Two Protocol Institute case studies: SIGBIZ AI Discovery Acceleration (L1→L2) and Protocolized visual identity pipeline (L3 Engine). Version 0.5, May 2026.

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