Tacit Knowledge
Working knowledge that lives in a person's head through daily experience and has never been captured in a system, document, or catalog. Distinct from recorded metadata, which is knowledge a system or document already states. An estate survey needs both; tacit knowledge is usually the harder of the two to find and the more likely to reveal a real problem.
Defined in 3 GAGE programs, which carry 5 distinct definitions of it. The wording above is taught in Certified AI Data Governance Professional (CADGP).
How each discipline defines it
The same term does different work depending on who is using it. These are the definitions as each program teaches them, unedited.
Working knowledge that lives in a person's head through daily experience and has never been captured in a system, document, or catalog. Distinct from recorded metadata, which is knowledge a system or document already states. An estate survey needs both; tacit knowledge is usually the harder of the two to find and the more likely to reveal a real problem.
Knowledge that is difficult to articulate and often unavailable to conscious awareness, built through implicit learning from repeated real exposure; the substance of expert judgment (Patterson, Pierce, Bell and Klein, 2010).
Expertise that has become invisible to the expert who holds it, so it is never written down; the fluency about an estate that does not transfer on its own and must be deliberately extracted before a governor leaves.
Information existing only in people's minds (pricing rules, customer preferences, operational shortcuts) that has not been documented or digitized.
understanding an individual holds through experience but has not necessarily articulated in writing, such as knowing which specific undocumented workaround a legacy pipeline needs without being able to immediately explain why.
Where it is taught
The exact lessons this term appears in. The first module of every program is free with a free account.
- Data Readiness for Small Operations · Digital Foundations, Certified AI Practitioner: Workplace Foundations
- The Experience Gap Solution: Guided Practice for Professional Judgment · AI in the Workplace and Team Leadership, Certified AI Practitioner: Workplace Foundations
- The interview sweep: what the humans know about the data that the systems do not · The Estate Survey, Certified AI Data Governance Professional (CADGP)
- The handover: what you now know that no certification could have taught you · The Estate Audit, Certified AI Data Governance Professional (CADGP)
- Your successor's briefing: documenting your organization's AI estate so command can transfer · Staying Current: The Frontier Discipline, Certified AI Governance Professional (CAIGP)
Where it shows up at work
A definition is where Tacit Knowledge starts. The lessons above teach it inside the competencies below, which are what job descriptions ask for and what the GAGE credential records. Every link here is drawn from the same careers map that builds a role's readiness check.
Designs role-based AI training that measures skill, not attendance, with approved-use guidance, office hours and communities of practice.
One lesson on this page teach it as a primary outcome.
Plans for a vendor failure, an unsafe model change or a suspended service: rollback, manual fallback, data export and safe decommissioning.
One lesson on this page teach it as a primary outcome.
Roles that hire for it
Each role page shows the full competency set, what the seat decides, and a readiness check against your own evidence.
- AI Adoption and Enablement Leadneeds it at depth
- Chief AI Officerneeds working knowledge
- AI Incident Response Leadneeds it at depth · 1 open posting this week
- Responsible AI Leadneeds working knowledge · 7 open postings this week
- AI Literacy Leadneeds working knowledge
- Chief Information Security Officer, AI security focusneeds working knowledge
How job descriptions say it
Postings rarely use the textbook word. These are the phrases the careers map reads as asking for the competencies above.
Where the frameworks place it: EU AI Act Article 4; DOL AI Literacy Framework; DORA; NIS2.
One interview question about it
Design AI literacy training for a workforce of mixed skill. Who learns what, and how do you know it worked?
Asked of candidates for ai literacy training and enablement design. Answering it in your own words is exactly how a GAGE topic is passed, and the credential records the pass where an employer can check it.
If you come from another field
Some backgrounds already carry this competency, and the readiness check gives credit for it.
- Human resources and people operations carries it as a claim to back up: Training design and delivery are part of the function.
- Operations, claims, customer service and administration carries it as a claim to back up: Onboarding and job aids are training design.
- Teachers, trainers and instructional designers carries it as work you can show: Lesson plans, assessments and curricula are your artifacts.
Terms it appears with
Not an alphabetical neighbourhood: these are the terms taught in the same lessons, ranked by how often they appear together.