Annual Review and Weekly Update: What we've built, and what we're building toward from here

This week's update is special as it's three updates in one. We'll look back at 2025 as a whole, dive into Q4 highlights, and cover this week's progress as we start 2026.

2025 Annual Review: From Concept to Reality

What PAICE Is

At its core, PAICE is a behavioral assessment that measures how effectively people collaborate with AI systems. Not what they say they do, or intend to do, or know how to do. What people actually do when working with AI on real tasks.

This matters because:

Policies don't prevent incidents, behavior does
Training doesn't work if you can't measure what needs improvement
Governance requires evidence, not assumptions

PAICE provides that evidence through a 25-minute conversation where you work with an AI on a real task while the system observes your collaboration patterns across five dimensions: Performance, Accountability, Integrity, Collaboration, and Evolution.

What We Built in 2025

The Assessment Experience

Individual Assessment

25-minute conversational assessment
Work on any real task (no preparation needed)
Immediate results with dimensional breakdown
Personalized recommendations for improvement
PDF export of your PAICE score™ and insights
Privacy-first design (no personal data collection)

Model-Agnostic Architecture

Currently supports Claude (Anthropic) and Gemini (Google), coming soon ChatGPT (OpenAI)
Framework measures collaboration patterns that transfer across AI systems
Your score remains meaningful regardless of which model you use
Designed for future AI models as they emerge

Privacy by Design

Zero cookies (no consent banner required)
No conversation storage in production
Hashed, anonymized identifiers only
Perfect privacy score (100/100)
GDPR and CCPA compliant by architecture
No data selling, ever

Organizational Capabilities

Founding Partner Program (launched December 2025):

4-week pilot for teams of 20-100 people
Cohort analytics without personal data collection
Executive reporting and governance artifacts
No system integrations required
Pricing: $5,000-$15,000 for standard pilots
Designed for regulated industries (healthcare, finance, insurance)

What Organizations Get:

Baseline AI collaboration capability measurement
Behavioral risk profile (verification failures, overtrust patterns)
Gap analysis between policy and observed behavior
Targeted development recommendations
Defensible evidence for auditors and regulators

Content & Education

Blog & Resources:

50+ published blog posts since October 2025
Weekly updates (now every Monday)
Educational content (frameworks, guides, how-tos)
FAQ deep dives answering common questions

Documentation:

Comprehensive whitepaper
Security overview and compliance documentation
Privacy policy and terms of service
Vendor packet for security & procurement teams (available upon request)

Core Principles That Guide Us

These aren't marketing slogans, they're constraints that shape every decision:

1. Privacy Is Non-Negotiable

On behalf of individuals, we don't collect data we don't need
On behalf of organizations, we opt for architecture over compliance theater
Users always have control over their data
Transparency about what we do and don't store

2. Behavior Over Intent

Measure what people actually do, not what they say they'll do
Observe patterns, not self-reports
Evidence-based insights, not assumptions
Accountability through measurement

3. Accessibility Over Exclusivity

Individual assessment free forever (PBC commitment)
Accessibility support for all users
Works on mobile (though desktop is better)
Clear, actionable recommendations for everyone to improve their AI collaboration skills

4. Governance-Ready From Day One

Designed for regulated industries
Audit-ready documentation
Compliance alignment (NIST AI RMF, ISO 42001, SOC 2)
Evidence that stands up to scrutiny

5. Research Transparency

Honest about validation status
Open about what we know and don't know
Community participation in validation
Academic partnerships for peer review

How It Actually Works

The Assessment Mechanics

What Happens During Assessment:

You choose a real work task (writing, analysis, planning, research, anything in your daily workflow that's text-based)
You have a 25-minute conversation with an AI about that task
PAICE observes your collaboration patterns in real-time
The system identifies behavioral signals across five dimensions
You receive your score, dimensional breakdown, and recommendations

What PAICE Observes:

How you frame requests and provide context
Whether you verify AI outputs before using them
How you handle errors and limitations
Whether you maintain critical thinking and judgment
How you iterate and refine based on feedback
Your awareness of AI capabilities and constraints

What PAICE Doesn't Do:

Judge the quality of your work output
Measure your intelligence or expertise
Evaluate your task completion
Store your conversation content
Link your score to your identity

2025 By The Numbers

October 2025 (Launch)

14 blog posts published
Research Preview 2025.10 launched
Individual assessment went live
Privacy-first architecture established (perfect 100 privacy score achieved)
WCAG 2.1 AA compliance achieved

November 2025

19 blog posts published
Research Preview 2025.11 launched
Incorporated as Public Benefit Corporation
Whitepaper v3.1 released at DevLearn
Pilot program introduced
Multi-model support added

December 2025

22 blog posts published
Research Preview 2025.12 launched
Founding Partner Program launched
Whitepaper v4 released (evergreen)
Dozens of UI enhancements implemented
Comprehensive code audits & documentation

Total 2025 Output

55 published blog posts
10 weekly updates (100% on-time)
1 comprehensive whitepaper in 2 editions
60+ pages of documentation, including:
- 10+ technical specifications
- 15+ governance documents
- 20+ compliance artifacts
- 15+ developer guides

This Week's Progress (December 29 - January 5)

New Content Published

Published "Your 30-Day AI Skill Roadmap" with accompanying video
Published "Knowledge Management in the AI Era"
Published "AI Collaboration Is the Master Skill for 2026"
Published weekly update (Dec 29)

Founding Partner Program Finalization

Finalized program structure and pricing
Created vendor packet for procurement teams
Documented compliance alignment for regulated industries
Established 4-week pilot timeline and deliverables

Highlighted 2026 Annual Goals

This is not an exhaustive list, only some important milestones we're tracking.

Validation

Complete SOC 2 Type II audit
Publish first peer-reviewed study
Establish 3-5 academic partnerships
Gather 10,000+ assessment data points
Reach 50,000 individual assessments

Growth

Onboard 5-10 Founding Partner organizations
Expand partner providers network
Grow community to 10,000+ members
Publish 200+ blog posts
Publish 10+ whitepapers

Product

Launch PAICE Cohort™ v2.0 product extensions
- PAICE for Teams™
- PAICE for Organizations™
- PAICE for Developers™
- PAICE for Students™
- PAICE for Educators™
Create custom reporting engine
Add multi-lingual support to assessment experience
Keep base individual assessment free forever
Maintain 99.9% uptime

Why This All Matters

Organizations are scaling AI adoption faster than they're building governance or measurable capability. The gap between "we have an AI policy" and "our people use AI safely" is growing.

PAICE provides the missing piece: behavioral evidence that shows how people actually collaborate with AI, where the risks are, and what needs to improve.

This isn't just useful—it's becoming essential. As AI regulations mature (EU AI Act, NIST AI RMF, ISO 42001), organizations will need defensible evidence of AI collaboration capability. Self-reported surveys won't cut it. Generic training completion metrics won't cut it.

Behavioral assessment will.

Thank You

To everyone who's taken the assessment, provided feedback, shared insights, or engaged with our content: thank you. You're helping us build something that matters.

To the organizations exploring the Founding Partner Program, thank you for trusting us with your AI governance journey. Your feedback is shaping the product.

To the researchers and academics reaching out about validation partnerships, thank you for helping us build the evidence base.

This is just the beginning.

This Week's Publishing Schedule

Monday (Jan 5): This annual/quarterly/weekly update ✅
Tuesday (Jan 6): Founding Partner Program announcement
Wednesday (Jan 7): "Your AI Policy Is Not Enough" (Issue Exploration)
Thursday (Jan 8): "Can PAICE Work in Regulated Industries?" (FAQ Deep Dive)
Friday (Jan 9): PAICE Assessment Walkthrough video (Media Share)

Get Involved:

Take the assessment (free, always)
Explore the Founding Partner Program (for organizations)
Read the whitepaper (comprehensive framework)
Join the research community (contribute to validation)