Definition

Autonomy Spectrum

The autonomy spectrum describes how much an agent does without a person. Semi-autonomous: the agent proposes, a human approves each action. Supervised autonomous: it acts independently and a human reviews periodically. Fully autonomous: it operates with no intervention. Most production agents today sit at the semi-autonomous end; the trajectory is toward full autonomy governed by trust boundaries, blast-radius limits, and monitoring rather than approval clicks.

Autonomy Spectrum diagram from Intelligence at Scale
Diagram from chapter 21, The Multi-Agent Future

Explained in

Chapter 21: The Multi-Agent Future

From teams of agents to companies run by agents.

Related terms

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