best-practices

How to design approval workflows for AI

Answer:

Define the risk triggers, approvers, required context, timeouts, and audit trail—then iterate based on outcomes.

The full story

Design is mostly about risk: what to gate, who approves, and what context they need.

Practical guidelines

  • Define triggers (amount, tool, policy).
  • Define approvers, timeouts, and escalation.
  • Make rejection safe: stop or request changes.

A good rule: start conservative, measure outcomes, then expand autonomy where the data supports it.