How should rules, models, and people divide work in an AI workflow?

Use deterministic software for stable steps that can be explicitly coded; use models for unstructured understanding and bounded judgment; retain human authority for high-risk exceptions, accountability, and actions that are hard to reverse. The allocation should evolve with evaluation and operating evidence.

Key points

  • Deterministic software: fixed calculations, validation, permission checks, state transitions, and explicit rules
  • Models or Agents: understanding, summarization, generation, classification, and bounded recommendations that can be evaluated and reviewed
  • Human authority: high-risk exceptions, value trade-offs, external commitments, payments, publishing, deletion, and risk acceptance
  • Start with the cost of error and accountability boundary, not a target automation percentage
  • Authority ladder: suggestion/draft → human confirmation → shadow mode → limited automatic action → broader authority after evidence
  • If data, process, or model conditions change, authority can move back one level for revalidation

How to do it

  1. Map one real workflow step by step, including inputs, rules, exceptions, actions, and accountable owners
  2. Put repeatable, stable rules into deterministic workflow first
  3. Create real examples, refusal cases, exceptions, and safety evaluations for every model step
  4. Use human confirmation or shadow mode for high-risk actions before expanding authority

Related reading

Book a free consultation →