Every evidence record in this hub is scored against the CFTE AI Proficiency Framework. The framework describes AI proficiency using three public levels, ten capability domains and three assessment dimensions — so that a claim about someone being "AI-ready" means the same thing everywhere it is used.
Artificial intelligence is becoming embedded across the full spectrum of knowledge work. Employers ask whether people are AI-ready, individuals try to signal that they are, and sectors are beginning to define their own expectations. What is still missing is a common framework that explains what AI proficiency actually means.
The CFTE AI Proficiency Framework addresses that gap. It is a public reference model for defining, assessing and developing AI proficiency across the professional workforce — built to stay durable as the tools themselves keep changing.
The levels are not about how many tools someone has used. Each step up describes more independent judgement, more accountability for the outcome, and a wider blast radius if that judgement is wrong. Select a level to see its full definition, the roles it maps to and the evidence behind it.
Safe and disciplined use of AI in professional contexts. Repeatable, role-relevant use with genuine tool literacy: the person validates what comes back, can explain why they chose a tool and where it falls short, and can show a clear benefit to their work.
Internal band 2 · Basic Proficiency
See the full AI Literacy level →Independent application, output validation and workflow use. The person challenges the AI's analysis, tests its assumptions and amends the output — then takes an independent, accountable decision. They build reusable workflows that outlast them.
Internal band 3 · Working Proficiency
See the full Applied AI Practitioner level →Systems reasoning, orchestration judgement and high-level implementation and governance capability. The person designs or governs AI-embedded processes that others follow: they set the standards, operate the controls and own the operating model.
Internal bands 4–5 · Advanced Application to Strategic Mastery
See the full AI Systems and Decision Leader level →Each verified record in the repository is mapped to a level. The shape below is the single most useful thing to know about the market right now: most published expectations cluster at Levels 1 and 2, while genuine systems-and-governance requirements remain comparatively rare.
A level is never a single score. Proficiency is assessed across ten capability domains, through three dimensions, and calibrated against six internal developmental bands. The three public levels are the reporting view; the bands are the measurement view underneath.
The complete CFTE AI Proficiency Framework — every domain descriptor, every band, the published methodology and the live, continuously updated database behind it.
Browse the verified records behind every level — filterable by company, role, sector and evidence class.
Cite and reuse
The CFTE AI Proficiency Framework is published so that organisations, professionals, educators and sector bodies can cite it, teach from it and use it as a foundation for their own work. You may reuse and adapt it, including commercially, provided you credit CFTE, indicate where changes were made, and apply the same licence to adapted versions. Adaptations should not present themselves as official CFTE profiles unless that recognition has been granted explicitly.