Where you actually learn the value of AI - one pattern at a time.

AI makes it easy to produce more. But more output is just more ore; what matters is the gold. These patterns help you turn AI activity into real value. They're named by practitioners, tested in the field, and free to use.

The ore-and-gold idea is inspired by Kent Beck's thinking on how we measure AI productivity.

New here? Start with these four

Each one sets up the next.

Step 1 - Pattern 05

Avoid AI Slop with an LLM Interview

Interview yourself first. It fills the backlog everything else runs on.

Step 2 - Pattern 15

The Night Shift

Hand the backlog to the AI overnight. Review it in the morning.

Step 3 - Pattern 08

Assemble the Team

Stress-test the work with named voices before it reaches a decision.

Step 4 - Pattern 12

Ghost in the Workflow

Give every AI asset a record so it outlives its builder.

The library

Every published pattern. Search above, or filter by type.

Foundation Habits anyone using AI needs Practice Making AI repeatable in real work Leadership Decisions that shape the whole organization

"AI Success Patterns are not new ideas dressed in new language. They are proven disciplines applied to a context that is actively resisting them - and a vocabulary for recognizing when that resistance is costing you value."

Greg Stellflue · Founder, Level 5ive Consulting

In review

Patterns under development. Content may change before publication. Share feedback directly.

PATTERN 06 In Review

AI as Amplifier, Not Foundation

AI makes you more of what you already are. If you bring expertise, it multiplies your output. If you bring a gap, it fills it with something that sounds like expertise - until someone asks a follow-up question.

PATTERN 07 In Review

Own the Thinking

AI used in the articulation layer builds on your capability. AI used in the discovery and synthesis layer substitutes for it. The output may look identical. The person who produced it is not.

PATTERN 09 In Review

The Compressed Apprenticeship

Expertise that took senior practitioners years to develop stays locked in their heads. Junior team members wait for mentorship time that never comes. AI's capacity to accelerate learning is left unused while organizations treat it purely as a productivity tool.

PATTERN 10 In Review

Models Are Not Good at Math - But They Can Program

Asking AI to calculate is the wrong move. Asking AI to write the formula or script that calculates is almost always the right one. The distinction determines whether your numbers are trustworthy.

PATTERN 11 In Review

The Productivity-to-Headcount Trap

A productivity gain tells you AI saved time. It does not tell you what to do with that time. Organizations that skip the redesign and go straight to headcount cuts are learning this the expensive way.

PATTERN 16 In Review

The Staged Journey

AI adoption isn't a switch you flip. Name the stages, know which one each team - and each person - is in, and give each the next step that fits.

PATTERN 17 In Review

Right Tool, Right Job

"What's the best AI?" is the wrong question. Keep one default, name the exceptions on purpose, and check the match on your own work.

PATTERN 19 In Review

Research Partner, Not All-Knowing Oracle

AI puts real research within reach of anyone - and makes it just as easy to cite sources that don’t exist. Let it find the leads, then check every one at the source.

PATTERN 20 In Review

Iterate to the Destination

Sometimes you can’t say what done looks like until you’ve seen a few attempts. Write the destination as a guess, rewrite it every round, and lock it inside a time box.

PATTERN 25 In Review

The Chat Is Not Your Memory

Long AI work loses its memory, and the AI doesn’t tell you what it forgot. Keep a record outside the chat: read it at the start, update it at the end.

Coming soon

Failure modes identified and named, with full patterns in development. If you have lived through one of these - send a direct message.

Why this library exists

In 1994, Gamma, Helm, Johnson, and Vlissides published Design Patterns - not to invent new programming concepts, but to name and codify patterns experienced developers were already using intuitively. Singleton. Observer. Factory. Decorator. Those words became the common language of software engineering for thirty years.

We are at that exact inflection point with AI. The patterns exist. The industry does not yet have the vocabulary. This library is the beginning of that vocabulary - built in public, released into the public domain, open to every practitioner who has a pattern to contribute.

AI brings the ability to automate to a whole new group of people. Patterns help them get up to speed quickly and safely.

Founded by Greg Stellflue, Founder of Level 5ive Consulting. All patterns released into the public domain.

Contribute

Have a pattern to share?

If you have a repeatable approach that reliably produces value with AI, grounded in real experience, document it in the pattern structure: Problem, Value, Context, Solution, Notes.

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GO Framework

AI Governance + Organization

AI Success Patterns are developed under the Level 5ive GO Framework - a structured approach to governing and organizing AI across the enterprise.

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Work with the author

This is what I do for organizations.

If you're reading these patterns and thinking about what AI governance actually looks like in your organization - that's the conversation I have with leadership teams. Let's talk.

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