Decide what needs approval
Not every step needs a person. A useful test is to ask what happens if the step is wrong and nobody notices.
- Usually no approval: reading, classifying, summarizing and drafting, as long as nothing leaves the system.
- Usually approval: anything a customer sees, anything that moves money, and anything hard to undo, such as deleting or overwriting records.
- Case by case: internal updates, such as assigning an owner or changing a status, depending on the cost of a mistake.
Write these rules down per action, and have the business owner agree them before anything is built.
Make the decision easy
The approver should be able to decide in one screen. Show what the AI proposes to do, the information it used, and anything it was unsure about. Offer three clear choices: approve, edit, or reject with a reason.
If approvers regularly have to open other systems to check the work, the step will slow down or, worse, be approved without checking.
Route by confidence
Where the AI can measure its own confidence, such as when extracting fields from a document, use it. High-confidence cases can follow a lighter review, while low-confidence or unusual cases go to a person with the details attached. The AI should never guess on a low-confidence item.
Keep a record
Log what the AI proposed, what the person decided, and any edits they made. The record supports audits, and it shows where the AI is reliable and where it needs improvement.
Review the approval rules over time
Start with close review. After a period of real use, look at the record. If a type of action is approved unchanged almost every time, you may reduce the review for it. If edits are common, improve the AI step before relaxing anything. Change the rules deliberately, with the business owner, rather than letting reviewers drift into rubber-stamping.
Name an owner
Every workflow needs a person accountable for its results, including what the AI does. That owner agrees the approval rules, reviews the record, and decides when the rules change.