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AI Gap Diagnostic
Norman’s Gap Framework
Is AI Pressure Outrunning Your Regulation?
Two versions of the same measurement. One for how you experience AI pressure personally. One for whether your organization's AI rollout is building regulation as fast as it's creating pressure. Same law underneath both: instability grows when pressure outruns regulation.
What this tool measures

Norman's Gap is the distance between external pressure and internal regulation. Applied here, pressure is the pace of AI change, the ambiguity about what's coming, and the noise arriving from outside. Regulation is what exists to absorb it.

This tool scores both sides and reports the gap between them. It does not judge whether AI itself is good or bad. It reports whether pressure and regulation are currently in balance.


Two views, one measurement

Individual measures how you personally experience AI pressure in your role right now. Organization measures whether the AI rollout your organization is running is generating pressure faster than it's building the structure to absorb it. Same underlying math, two different altitudes.


The four Gap Score bands
Gap open (+2.5 to +4)Pressure is significantly ahead of regulation.
Gap forming (+1 to +2.4)Pressure is ahead. Regulation hasn't caught up.
Holding (−0.9 to +0.9)Pressure and regulation are roughly matched.
Regulated (−4 to −1)Regulation is ahead of pressure.

What this tool scores
1
Pressure -- three dimensions, each built from a short set of questions, each averaged and reported on a 1 to 5 scale.
2
Regulation -- three dimensions, scored the same way, on the same scale.
3
Gap Score -- Pressure minus Regulation. Positive means pressure is ahead. Negative means regulation is ahead.
4
Primary Constraint and Bigger Drag -- the single highest-scoring pressure dimension, and the single lowest-scoring regulation dimension.

Primary Constraint and Bigger Drag, explained

Primary Constraint names where pressure is concentrated. Bigger Drag names where regulation is weakest. Together they point at where the gap is opening, not just how wide it is.


This is a directional read, not a diagnosis. Scores reflect self-reported perception at a single point in time, not a measurement of actual job risk or organizational health. Weightings and band cutoffs reflect deliberate design choices, not statistical validation against a dataset. If AI-related stress is affecting your wellbeing, this tool is not a substitute for talking with someone you trust.


Based on Norman’s Gap, by Norman Applegate. Published by MOSei.org.