The RousseauAi Work Redesign Model
Redesign the work. Reassign the execution. Measure the economics.
Most companies were built on one assumption: people do the work, and software helps them.
That assumption is changing. But swapping human tasks for AI, one at a time, rarely produces a better company. It makes an outdated design run faster.
The starting question
The Work Redesign Model starts with a different question:
If we built this business today, knowing what people, software and AI can each do, how would we organize the work?
Method
The five stages
Strip
What work should disappear entirely?
A list of steps, approvals, reports and handoffs to remove
Sort
What needs a person, what needs ordinary software, and what can AI carry? Decided by the six criteria below.
The Work Allocation Map
Shift
How should the remaining work be done?
Redesigned workflows and the systems that run them
Supervise
Who has authority, and when must a person step in?
Controls, permissions and escalation rules
Score
What changed, in money and in operations?
A before-and-after scorecard
The order matters. Most AI projects start at Shift.
They automate work that should have been stripped, and hand AI work that ordinary software would do better and cheaper.
Allocation
How work gets allocated
Six questions decide where each piece of work goes. Ask them in order.
| Criterion | The question | What it decides |
|---|---|---|
| Necessity | Would anyone miss this work if it stopped? | No: Eliminate |
| Predictability | Does the same input always need the same output? | Yes: Automate with ordinary software |
| Consequence of error | What does a mistake cost, and who bears it? | High: a person decides, AI may assist |
| Reversibility | Can a wrong action be caught and undone quickly? | No: a person approves before it happens |
| Required judgment | Does it need discretion, a relationship, or someone accountable? | Yes: Keep human |
| Economics | Is the new way cheaper in full, counting software, AI usage, oversight and upkeep? | No: leave it as it is |
The rule: work goes to AI only when it is necessary, too variable for ordinary software, low in consequence or easy to reverse, and cheaper in full. Anything regulated, irreversible or high-consequence keeps a person in the decision, even when AI could technically do it.
The map
The Work Allocation Map
Not everything a person does not need to do should go to AI. Some work disappears, some belongs in ordinary software, and AI can help with work a person still owns.
Where the freed capacity goes
Freed hours are not savings. Not yet.
When work moves to systems, people get time back. That time becomes value only when you decide what to do with it. There are four choices, and each builds a different company:
Grow.
Take on more volume with the same team.
Serve better.
Put the time into customers and quality.
Avoid future hiring.
Grow without adding headcount.
Reduce cost.
Take the saving to the P&L.
The Work Redesign Model makes that a leadership decision, not an accident. Every Score includes the full cost of the new system: software, AI usage, oversight and upkeep.
The goal
The goal is not to remove people from the business. It is to stop spending human talent on work that no longer needs it.
Every Redesign engagement applies this model to your company. In four weeks you see your own Work Allocation Map and the economics behind it.
Strategy is human. Execution is increasingly hybrid.
Read Industry Redesign.
One essay a month on how AI changes the way companies are built.