news.ycombinator.com• Aug 20, 2026• 1 min read
Are you good at AI, or just using it?We’re working on a ladder for individual AI proficiency and would love feedback on both the levels and the definitions.L0 New: brand new to AI, or has not yet used it.L1 Chat: simple prompt-and-response use. Work is serial: ask, wait for an answer, then ask again.L2 Contextual Work: gives AI relevant documents, data, or workspace context so it can work within the actual artifact and produce a more useful result.L3 Orchestrate: coordinates multiple agents or AI roles across independent workstreams, with work that may review, challenge, compare, or build on other work. This is not just for engineering.L4 Automate: creates workflows that are triggered by business events and run without someone sitting at a laptop directing each step.L5 Loop: feeds the output of those workflows back into shared knowledge or a company brain, so future workflows improve over time.A few things I’d love your perspective on:Are these the right levels? Are any of the names unclear or overlapping? What observable