Who should decide what a quickly built AI prototype is allowed to do?
The Power Shift conversation described new opportunities for people to build, and a colleague who can make a prototype fast brings real capability. That capability doesn't come with authority over every decision the prototype touches. Get the business owner and the affected people to agree on the purpose and scope before it goes into regular operation.
Find the business owner and the people whose work or information the prototype uses. They should agree on the problem and the permitted scope first. The builder can lay out options and constraints. Policy, customer promises and external actions stay with the appropriate owners, and the builder shouldn't have to infer a rule because nobody else answered.
The demo and the decision are two documents
Write the operating decision down apart from the technical demonstration. A working button doesn't prove the organization should let people press it in every context.
Credit the builder for what they contributed, and keep responsibilities outside their role off their plate. A useful collaboration pairs technical initiative with clear decisions about the work the organization is ready to own.
What to try this week
List the prototypes people on your team have built lately and put a business owner's name next to each. Blank spots show where nobody has decided yet.