Designing Human Approval into Autonomous Workflows
· 3 min read
Many automation diagrams treat human approval as friction: a box to eliminate once the system becomes sufficiently intelligent.
That is the wrong model for consequential work.
Approval is not evidence that an agent failed. It is a deliberate assignment of responsibility. The agent prepares, validates, and recommends; the human decides when authority, judgement, or accountability cannot be delegated safely.