Baseline and measurement design before attributing impact to AI

The decision

Establish and preserve a baseline before attributing improvements to AI agents or workflows.

Why it mattered

Without a prior baseline, any improvement claim lacks a comparable reference.

The trade-off

Measuring first delays early claims and requires data discipline, but makes it possible to distinguish real improvement from perception or normal variation.

What changed

Improvement claims require comparison against a prior reference instead of relying only on narrative.

The outcome

No generic AI productivity improvement is published; results must be demonstrated per initiative against its baseline.

Summary of a documented architecture decision. Method, mechanism and supporting evidence are not published.