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Decision authority is often implicit even when AI execution is explicit.
pillar · Decision Design knowledge system
What Is Decision Design?
Decision Design is Ryoji Morii's judgment architecture framework for deliberately structuring authority, boundaries, escalation, and accountability in human-AI systems.
Why this topic matters
AI can now recommend and execute consequential actions faster than organizations can clarify who legitimately decides. Decision Design makes that authority structure explicit before speed turns ambiguity into institutional risk.
Problem structure
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Human oversight can become ceremonial when escalation and override rights are undefined.
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Accountability fragments when evidence, authority, execution, and outcome are recorded separately.
Core concepts
Judgment Architecture describes the whole institutional structure. Decision Boundaries allocate and transfer authority within it. Decision Logs preserve accountability across those transfers.
Judgment Architecture
Judgment Architecture is the institutional arrangement through which judgment authority is allocated, exercised, transferred, recorded, and reviewed.
Decision Boundary
A Decision Boundary is an authority structure that specifies where delegated judgment ends and another legitimate authority must decide.
Decision Logs
Decision Logs are accountability infrastructure connecting judgment, authority, evidence, execution, and outcome across a decision lifecycle.
Featured analysis and guidance
Toward Decision Design: The Authority Problem in AI-Augmented Organizations
A foundational analysis of authority allocation beneath AI governance.
Who Decided? The Question AI Governance Keeps Avoiding
Why governance mechanisms cannot substitute for legitimate judgment authority.
Accountability Needs Authority
Why responsibility must be anchored in an explicitly designed mandate.