AI Operating Model on Christa Burger

My AI Maturity Ladder: From Chat to Choreography

Wed, 24 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Here is how I currently think about AI maturity:

1. Chat

Ask questions, get answers.

2. Templates

Reuse prompts for common work.

3. Workflows

Connect steps into repeatable processes.

4. Roles

Different AI functions do different jobs.

5. Governance

Add review, evidence, escalation, and accountability.

6. Choreography

Intelligence moves through the organization in designed patterns.

Most people are somewhere between 1 and 3.

That is not bad.

But it explains why results still feel inconsistent.

Prompting Is Not the Endgame of AI

Mon, 22 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Prompting is useful.

For your phone AI app.

Prompting is not the endgame.

After a few years of experimenting with AI, I think the real maturity curve is choreography.

How does work enter the system?
Who gathers context?
Who summarizes?
Who checks risk?
Who drafts?
Who reviews?
Who approves?
Where does the evidence go?
What happens next time?

That is a different conversation.

Prompting is asking better questions.

Choreography is designing how intelligence moves.

AI Ecosystems Beat AI Assistants

Fri, 05 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000

I think the shift in AI is from assistant to ecosystem.

An assistant helps with a task.

An ecosystem supports a pattern of work.

That is a very different thing.

An ecosystem has:

Roles
Handoffs
Review points
Memory
Escalation paths
Operating rhythms
Evidence capture

This is where AI starts becoming infrastructure.

But only if we design it.

Otherwise, we just end up with several disconnected tools producing several disconnected outputs while everyone calls it transformation and quietly keeps using spreadsheets.

Not Every AI Should Be the Same AI

Mon, 01 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000

I used to put too much into one AI conversation.

Strategy. Drafting. Summarizing. Planning. Debugging. Content ideas. Household systems. Possibly plant identification.

A perfectly normal range of human concerns.

Eventually, I realized the issue was not the model.

It was the lack of role clarity.

Human teams have roles for a reason:

Strategist
Analyst
Operator
Reviewer
Auditor
Assistant

AI needs the same distinction.

Some AI functions should explore. Some should execute. Some should check. Some should preserve context. Some should challenge assumptions. Some should produce clean artifacts.

The Problem With One Giant AI Assistant

Mon, 20 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

After 5+ years of experimenting with AI, one of my clearest lessons is this:

The answer is probably not one giant assistant.

I know. It’s a bit tragic, but you’ve tried it, I’ve tried it, and it doesn’t really work.

Eventually this will improve. But as of this writing, whenever you try to make one AI do everything, it eventually becomes a very articulate junk drawer.

It can summarize. It can draft. It can analyze. It can plan. It can hallucinate a project management structure with great confidence and light jazz energy.