AI Governance Engineer
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Autonomy level

By Updated

How far an agent acts without a person between its steps, set by the deployer as a design decision rather than taken as a property of the model; one research scale names five levels by the user's role, from operator to observer 1. It is a registry field tied to a minimum control set, and raising it is a reviewed change.

Developed in
ch. 23, Autonomy is a design decision
Chapters
ch. 15, Deployment · ch. 17, Incidents · ch. 23, AI Agents
Contrast with
Autonomy
Source
1 numbered reference, listed below

Where it is used

3 chapters of the Body of Knowledge use the term. Each link opens the first section that does.

Autonomy level: mentions per chapter6 mentions of the term across 3 of the 23 chapters of the Body of Knowledge; the chapters the glossary cross-references are drawn solid.Cross-referenced chapter15 Deployment: 1 mention15 Deployment117 Incidents: 2 mentions17 Incidents223 AI Agents: 3 mentions23 AI Agents3No mentions in the other 20 chaptersSource: the Body of Knowledgev0.5.0
Autonomy level: mentions per chapter6 mentions of the term across 3 of the 23 chapters of the Body of Knowledge; the chapters the glossary cross-references are drawn solid.Cross-referenced chapter000102030405060708101112131415 Deployment: 1 mention1151617 Incidents: 2 mentions217181920212223 AI Agents: 3 mentions323Source: the Body of Knowledge v0.5.0
Mentions per chapter How often each chapter names the term, with the chapters the glossary cross-references drawn solid. The longest bar is where to read the term in use; bars spread across many chapters mark a term that runs through the discipline.
Mentions as a table
Mentions of Autonomy level per chapter
ChapterMentionsCross-referenced
00 Preface0No
01 Definition0No
02 Why Now0No
03 Values & Principles0No
04 The Stack0No
05 Patterns0No
06 The Role0No
07 Maturity Model0No
08 Regulatory Map0No
10 Reading List0No
11 AI Defined0No
12 Governance Program0No
13 Risk Management0No
14 Development0No
15 Deployment1Yes
16 Fairness & XAI0No
17 Incidents2Yes
18 EU AI Act0No
19 Privacy & AI0No
20 Existing Law0No
21 AI Laws Worldwide0No
22 Principles & Standards0No
23 AI Agents3Yes
  • Deployer

    Under the EU AI Act, whoever uses an AI system under its own authority, other than in a purely personal, non-professional activity.

Sources

  1. [1] "Levels of Autonomy for AI Agents" (K. J. Kevin Feng, David W. McDonald, Amy X. Zhang; arXiv 2506.12469; autonomy as a deliberate design decision separate from capability and operational environment; five levels by user role: operator, collaborator, consultant, approver, observer). arXiv. 2025-06-14 (v2 2025-07-28). https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.12469 (verified: primary)

Definitions of legal terms paraphrase the cited text, which governs. Dated statements are as of .

Cite this term

García Aibar, J. (2026). Autonomy level. In AI Governance Engineering: The Thesis & Body of Knowledge (v0.5.0), Glossary. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.22956197. https://aigovernanceengineer.com/glossary/autonomy-level. CC BY 4.0

BibTeX

@misc{aige2026autonomylevel,
  author  = {Jorge García Aibar},
  title   = {{Autonomy level}},
  note    = {Glossary, AI Governance Engineering: The Thesis \& Body of Knowledge, version 0.5.0},
  year    = {2026},
  doi     = {10.5281/zenodo.22956197},
  url     = {https://aigovernanceengineer.com/glossary/autonomy-level}
}