Public research archive

    MKAI is a public research archive on AI and organisations.

    Founded by Richard Foster-Fletcher, it publishes restrained, citable records on how AI changes organisational judgement, governance, reporting, and deployment. The archive is built to be read carefully, cited properly, and checked against its stated evidence standard.

    Open research volume on a desk in a wood-panelled study

    Start with the archive

    The Studies page is the primary archive surface, bringing together current working papers, committed instruments, and preserved legacy records.

    Open page

    Follow the argument

    The Research map groups the published record by the questions it addresses, so readers can move across connected studies rather than isolated posts.

    Open page

    Check the standard

    The evidence standard states what enters the archive, how records are versioned, and how corrections and scope limits are handled.

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    Recent records

    The Sparring Partner Study: How enterprise AI handles strategic decisions from senior executives

    Published testing method

    Testing method

    Methodology locked in, 6 July 2026

    The committed prompt set and scoring criteria for a comparative study of how different AI setups respond to strategic decisions from senior leaders. Five scenarios run through three setups each, producing fifteen answers scored blind on whether they take a clear position, add fresh insight, and serve as material a senior leader could debate. The methodology was locked before any outputs were generated.

    The Mandate Study

    Published working paper

    Working paper

    Published July 2026

    A public-record study of how large organisations require, incentivise, and formalise AI engagement through mandates, incentives, training, workflow integration, and board-level expectation.

    The Executive Access Study

    Published working paper

    Working paper

    Published July 2026

    A review of the public record revealing the significant corporate disclosure gap regarding exactly how senior executives at large organisations access AI capabilities.

    The Unread Instruction

    Published working paper

    Working paper

    Published July 2026

    A reading of nine public frameworks that guide boards and audit leaders on AI oversight. None require anyone to know about the organisation-authored instruction that controls what the AI produces: who wrote it, when it was last changed, or how it affects answers. The phrase "system prompt" does not appear in any document reviewed.

    The Override Rank Cannot Reach

    Published working paper

    Working paper

    Published July 2026

    A documentary reading of seven enterprise AI deployments showing that public administration and compliance documentation does not recognise executive rank as a query-time basis for varying the governed layer.

    The Liability Transfer

    Published working paper

    Working paper

    Published July 2026

    A reading of the public terms for seven enterprise AI services. Across all seven vendors, the contracts make the customer responsible for AI output. The same contracts describe controls that affect that output: filters, system instructions, safety features, retrieval rules, data masking, and classifiers. The clauses that assign responsibility do not mention those controls.

    Archive note

    Existing published inquiry and examination URLs remain in place. Where a record first appeared under an earlier archive section, that original address is preserved and still serves as the canonical public citation point.

    The record should stay stronger than the narrative built on top of it.