Emeri band · where you stand
E3 · Distinguished
Uses AI with judgment and range: combines tools, handles ambiguity, verifies what matters, and delivers work that raises the bar. Distinguished.
E3 is the distinguished band. Someone at E3 brings judgment to AI work, not only habits. They take on tasks with no clear shape, combine tools into a workflow, and decide how much checking a piece of work needs before it ships.
The output at E3 raises the bar for the people around it. Colleagues tend to borrow an E3 person’s requests, workflows, and review steps.
To build from here, each skill below links to a free guide, and the role guides show what E3 looks like in your job.
E3 in each of the six skills
- Asking well
- A large job is broken into a sequence of requests, each with a clear purpose. Requests state what the output must not do as well as what it must do. The model is used to question a brief before drafting from it.
- Checking the work
- Verification is matched to the stakes. High-risk claims are traced to primary sources, and low-risk drafts get a lighter pass. The model is asked to argue against its own answer where that helps.
- Putting it together
- Several tools and steps are joined into one repeatable workflow. Each step has a defined input and output, and the workflow is documented well enough for someone else to run it.
- Getting real work done
- AI speeds up the whole task, not only the first draft. Finished work is better than it would have been without AI, not just faster.
- Giving good context
- Background is chosen, not dumped. The model gets the material that changes the answer, in a structure it can use, and the limits of that material are stated.
- Keeping it safe
- Data handling is decided per task and per tool. Where AI should not make or inform a decision, that boundary is named and held, including under time pressure.
How E3 differs from the bands either side
E3 and E2 · Proficient
E2 is reliable on tasks with a clear shape. E3 stays reliable when the task is ambiguous, spans several tools, or carries real risk. E3 also decides how much to verify, where E2 tends to apply the same check to everything.
E3 and E4 · Exceptional
E4 is consistent across all six skills, under pressure, and sets the practice others follow. An E3 profile usually has one or two skills a step behind the rest. E4 has no such gap.
E3 in your role
The six skills are the same in every job. What E3 looks like is not. Each role guide describes every band from E1 to E4 with tasks from that job.
Questions
What does Distinguished mean in practice?
It means AI work done with judgment and range. Someone at E3 handles ambiguous tasks, builds workflows across tools, and verifies in proportion to the stakes.
What separates E3 from E4?
Consistency and influence. E4 is fluent in every skill, holds that standard under pressure, and shapes how other people work with AI.
Is an E3 from the free check the same as a certified E3?
No. The free check gives an estimated band from multiple-choice questions. A certified band comes from the paid exam, which adds open-ended scenarios graded against published rubrics.
See which band you are in
The free check scores all six skills in about fifteen minutes and gives you an estimated band. No account needed to start.
Take the free check