The first cross-company AI executive exposure analysis built on the IMPACT x FAVES dual-axis framework. What emerges rewrites the Board conversation about AI risk.
Across three radically different single-constraint companies — a power infrastructure builder (60.0%), a logistics SaaS platform (58.5%), and an accounting roll-up (63.5%) — the Augment zone holds at 58-64%. Executive work is judgment work. ~60% sits where AI can prepare, draft, and model, but a human must verify, decide, and sign. When constraints compound (CSL: Atoms + Institutional), the zone expands to 80.6%. Constraint interaction is multiplicative, not additive.
GenusPlus (concrete and cable) and Kelly Partners (tax returns and trusts) both score 4.0-4.1% Automate Now despite completely different sectors. One is protected by physics, the other by law. WiseTech (pure SaaS, cutting 2,000 jobs) only reaches 9.9% at executive level. SEEK breaks the pattern at 16.7% — but only because its platform side is Bits-native. The number tells you nothing; the why tells you everything.
FAVES Volatility (inverse consequence of error) is the single most powerful differentiator. At Kelly Partners, V=1 because the CPA carries personal liability. At CSL, V=1 because the consequence is patient safety. These collapses drag technically-feasible tasks into Augment regardless of AI capability. The Augment zone won't shrink until regulators create frameworks for AI-in-the-loop compliance.
At 4 of 5 companies, the CFO is the most AI-exposed executive. Financial reporting scores F=4-5, A=5, S=5 everywhere. WiseTech's CFO at 0.66x is the most compressed in the portfolio. But at SEEK, the most exposed is the GE for AI (0.68x, 50% Automate Now, 0.5 deskilling) — the person building AI is most vulnerable to it.
Mary Oates achieves perfect 100% Augment — zero tasks automatable, zero ignorable. Every manufacturing task is blocked by physics (fractionation plants) and regulation (GMP/FDA). This is structurally impossible at a software company. When constraint types compound, the other quadrants don't just shrink — they disappear.
Kelly Partners shows 0.0 deskilling across every role — the liability wrapper protects complexity, not just routine. CSL shows marginal signals. But WiseTech's CFO (0.4) and SEEK's GE AI (0.5) show active deskilling — AI absorbs their highest-value work. Bits companies hollow from the top; Institutional companies are protected at every level.