Welcome to another update on the Special Interest Group on Protocols for Business (SIGP4B) hosted by Summer of Protocols. We meet every other week for an hour to break down a case study or business reading, usually with the goal of improving our own work – or improving how we think about current affairs. Join here.
Last week, two SIGP4B contributors,
and , hosted a workshop on AI adoption curves. What will the next 30 years look like, really? In this post I’ll share a few key insights from the workshop, including key readings and case studies that informed it, then preview two special projects booting up at Summer of Protocols.
AI Knowledge Futurama – Berlin
Context: a two-part, futures workshop exploring how Europe could produce a region-specific AI over 30 years, moving through Levels 1–5 of SIGP4B’s Capability Maturity Model.
In the first session, blue teams went stage by stage, designing adopting strategies. Scenarios matured from early uncontrolled usage of LLMs to companies redesigned around AI-assisted workflows. Red teams fought back with crises, tensions, and governance issues – ending with a last-minute disruption event to force adaptivity.
In the second session, participants refactored their 30-year roadmaps into stories. That’s hard to write a story about. Roadmaps and protocols aren’t inherently exciting, but they’re important. Thanks to Protocolized and its writers, we’ve gotten good at coaching others in writing protocol fiction – so protocol designers can make more impact.
Key Ideas
Broken down and summarized for easier reading. Stay tuned for the deep dive.
The meso layer is hard to see: Workers at logistics companies don’t debate why containers are the right way to move goods. The protocol is invisible until something breaks in the macro layer (trade wars, pandemics) or micro layer (labor strikes).
AI adoption is uniquely disorienting: Unlike past technologies that were purpose-built and adopted gradually, AI’s first wave comes through consumer channels.
Usage tags are practical: AI content isn’t evil, but we need to treat it differently. A brief written by hand for 8 hours isn’t equal to one generated in 8 minutes; critique can be more direct for generated output – people feel less attached to their work.
Red herring metrics: Token counts and total spend are not-even-wrong. For now, treat LLMs as a new design space. E.g., workplace documents evolved from static folders to dynamic streams of live documents. AI invites us to ask: what should the medium for knowledge work evolve into next?
Drift Stacking: Two forms of drift that put pressure on existing coordination approaches like task estimation, project management, and resource planning.
Speed drift: Teams execute at increasingly different speeds, creating lots of downtime. One participant described how their lawyer expected a two-month turnaround but was surprised with AI-generated documents in two weeks, faster than the plan could accommodate.
Intention drift: Heavy AI usage means no one tracks the design decisions or being committed to. Drift between human intent and machine output is a serious problem for strategic discipline.
Readings
In case you want to dive into the source material:
This workshop stepped toward understanding the metaphors, norms, and protocols that might define organizations in a generative native world. It will also inform the next iteration of SIGP4B’s current project: a playbook and scorecard for AI adoption.
Bridge Atlas
In the next few weeks, in the lead up to our fall events, we are focused on bridge building. We’ll bring people together to map futures built on protocols, not just platforms. You can look forward to a new podcast series, and to a couple of meetups and workshops in Argentina.
Podcast Series
We have a dozen awesome guests going on the Protocol Town Hall to talk about their work in different domains. Each episode features two guests: one from the Ethereum ecosystem and one from beyond. Our host for the series, Christine Kim, has done a lot of reading on protocol studies in preparation. If you’re new to the material, tune in and tag along on her journey to protocol literacy.
Latin America
We have two events in LatAm scheduled – and are open to doing (or supporting) more depending on interest.
Protocol Studies Meetup (November 18): Join us in Buenos Aires’ Palermo district for an evening mixer, featuring a series of panels with contributors to the field. Get more info and register your interest in attending here.
Devconnect (November 22): A full-day workshop on protocol studies, tailored to the attendees of Devconnect ARG. We’ve compiled and refactored material from SoP – including field-tested ideas from the Bridge Atlas series – to make the most compact protocol literacy accelerator yet. Space is limited. Register here.