You're a shape,
not a score.
AI skill is a vector across six domains. The shape of that vector — where you're strong, where you lag — is the whole story a single number hides.
Find your shape — free →The certification contour — high and even, with Orchestration introduced.
Five depths, six domains
Every domain runs the same five-rung ladder — so a “3” means the same depth everywhere. What changes is what that depth looks like in each domain.
Hover any cell to read what that depth looks like in each domain.
Which of these is you?
Archetypes are generated from the shape of a profile, not hand-picked. Pick one and watch it move against the contour (dashed), colored by its capability–safety balance.
Flat — the generalist
Tilt — tier-led
Gap — guardrails vs throughput
Peak — the specialist
Valley — the blind spot
Dyad — the role pair
The Practitioner
Flat — the generalist · established altitude
Gap = how far doing-skills (interaction, orchestration) run ahead of judgment (ethics, evaluation, judgment). Above zero, capability is outrunning safety.
Even generalist — solid and balanced across all six domains, with room to deepen everywhere
24 base archetypes, past 35 with altitude. Three-plus-feature profiles are described compositionally — never given a bespoke name.
When capability outruns judgment
In plain terms: are your AI doing-skills running out ahead of your judgment? We measure it as throughput (what you can produce) minus the guardrails (ethics, judgment, evaluation) — and the same skill total can tip three very different ways.
The Operator
High capability over low understanding. Capability races ahead — the flagship danger.
The Certified Contour
Capability is high but never allowed to outrun judgment. The balance the credential certifies.
The Skeptic
Maxed judgment and ethics, deliberately light hands. Safe — but value is left on the table.
Every domain has a failure mode
When a domain lags, a specific, named risk surfaces. The growth spectrum and our six-risk framework are two readings of the same axis.
Oscillating between magical over-trust and reflexive dismissal.
"The AI recommended it" — so whose fault is it?
The judgment skill of working without AI atrophies through under-exercise.
An AI trained to agree is not a collaborator — it's a mirror.
Polished prose feels true. AI is always polished.
Managing AI tools is cognitive work. That work has a cost.
These dangerous profiles explain why the contour stops where it does — never labels pointed at a person.
A certification that maps to these six domains
The Applied AI Certification, offered by the nonprofit Center for Practical AI, certifies confident, capable independence across this exact framework — a contour, not a summit.
Learn about it at cp-ai.org →See your own shape
The free assessment maps your six-domain profile, names your archetype, and shows exactly where you sit against the contour.
Take the free assessment