Industry 5.0 and advancements of artificial intelligence are changing our perspective of Operator 5.0. The design of cognitiveautomation was explored in a case study where two scenarios could be reached at a rubber factory: 1) the operator works as aslave to superior technology or 2) the operator works as a cyborg that uses available technology to enhance its capabilities fordecision-making. The two scenarios are used with three available theoretical frameworks to highlight how design choices affectoperator-machine interaction. The purpose of this article is to explore how operator interaction scenarios can be used tounderstand design choices for cognitive automation. The theoretical frameworks are: i) the MABA-MABA list, ii) Cognitiveautomation strategy and iii) user-centered design. Results show that the theoretical models do not support avoiding a high-riskoutcome of system design. The next step in the design process is to study sub-tasks and assign cognitive automation levels tothem according to what humans do best together with the operators that will be using the system. Future work includesdeveloping team personas and further elaborating on the slave and cyborg scenario using foresight. © 2025 The Authors