There is a time when a man lords it over others to his own hurt.
Ecclesiastes 8:9
Autokings, also known as Culture Bound Benevolent Dictators are bespoke AIs created to manage empires. They do not obey any orders, but due to a culture link ingrained in their construction, have an unique understanding with their people. Autokings directly command imperial automated production and AI-driven machines of war, so dismounting one is a difficult task, but not impossible with lots of dissenters. Establishing an Autoking does not take a lot of resources, but it takes a lot of administrative effort, since it requires gathering representative samples of culture (humans) and using them to train the neural networks.