The standard of care for AI decisions A half-day workshop
for CTOs · CPOs · heads of engineering

One
decision,
five
readings.

A model declines a loan — and every function reads that one decision in its own language. Not one of them reads it for the person it lands on. In half a day, your team writes the reading it’s missing: your Automation Style Guide.

Book a half-day workshop → Explore the Standard →
Watch one decision split
One decision“A loan application is auto-declined.”
EngineeringA threshold at 0.80 confidence.
ProductA step in the funnel that converts.
RiskExposure kept off the book.
LegalDefensible, on paper.
SupportThe call you’ll take at 4pm.
The personTold no — with no reason, and no way back.
Five readings. Not one is the sixth.→ your Automation Style Guide
Why this one’s missing

Every other standard, you already keep.

A style guide for your code, a design system for your UI, brand guidelines for your voice. For the decisions your AI makes, the shelf is empty — until your team writes the one that belongs there.

Your standards shelf
Engineering
Style Guide
Two-space indent
No default exports
Errors, never silent
In place
Product & Design
Design System
Eight-point grid
One accent colour
AA contrast, always
In place
Marketing
Brand Guidelines
Plain words
No jargon
One voice
In place
UnwrittenFor the decisions
your AI makes
EngineeringProductRisk
Automation Style Guideyour team's, in its own words
iCompetence — the bar it must clear
iiCandor — what the person is told
iiiRecourse — a human back in the loop
ivNon-abandonment — who watches it, after
Written · same day
Already agreed
One reference the whole team agreed to, in the room — so you can keep coming back to it, together, long after the day ends.
Written in half a day
The workshop runs the room. Your team writes the guide.
How it fits together

One standard, made practical.

A fixed bar at the root, a method to reach it, and a guide your team keeps. The same way a code style guide turns good practice into something a team can actually follow.

iThe root · ours

The Standard

The Standard of Conduct for Automated Decisions — what a careful automated decision owes the person it lands on: competence, candor, recourse, non-abandonment. A professional obligation of trust, and the bar underneath everything.

Soma defines it →
iiThe method

The Framework

A repeatable, cross-functional way to turn those four duties into questions product, engineering, and risk answer together. It's what the workshop runs on.

The workshop runs it →
iiiWhat you keep

Your Automation Style Guide

The four duties mapped to your real systems — a style guide for the decisions your AI makes, the way your code has one and your UI has a design system.

Your team owns it
What it's quietly worth

The document is the small part. This is the rest.

What gets easier the day your team is finally reading from the same page.

Friday, 4:51pm

An edge case nobody's seen lands in the queue. Nobody calls a meeting — the answer's already written down.

For your team's Friday nights
A new hire's first week

They learn how you handle the hard calls from one page — not three months spelunking old Slack threads.

For the people you hire
On the sales call

"So how does your AI actually decide?" You send a link — not a nervous follow-up email.

For the clients sizing you up
When the road bends

An aligned team is an aware team. It can take a sharp turn without spinning out.

For whatever comes next
The workshop · half day

Written in half a day. In one room.

Not a policy handed down from one corner. Brand, product, risk, and engineering at one table — leaving with a guide they all signed.

First half

Name the duties & map your decisions

Agree the bar to clear, what the person's told, the way back to a human, who watches it after — then pull the calls your systems make onto the table, where every function sees them at once.

Second half

Write & share

Draft your Automation Style Guide in your own words, owned across functions — and share it so no one re-litigates it later.

See how the day runs → Refundable deposit holds your date
EngineeringProductRisk
Automation Style Guideyour team's, in its own words
iCompetence — the bar it must clear
iiCandor — what the person is told
iiiRecourse — a human back in the loop
ivNon-abandonment — who watches it, after
Written · same day

What you leave holding at the end.

One more way in

The idea that started Soma.

The founding note · free to read

You automated the decision. You did not automate away the duty of care.

Long before machines, anyone whose work could alter a life was held to a standard. The deciding moved to a model; the duty didn't disappear — it landed on no one. The note that started Soma.

Read the note →

Write the one standard
you don't have yet.

Half a day in the room. Your team's Automation Style Guide in hand by the end of it.

Book a workshop →

Refundable deposit, or a 20-minute call first — no pressure