Separate preparation from authority
Sorting documents or preparing a checklist is different from approving a legal, health, employment, or material financial decision. Assess each step separately instead of assigning one risk rating to the entire process.
Design a meaningful review
The reviewer needs the original evidence, enough time, an understandable explanation, and the ability to reject an output. A button that merely confirms a machine’s recommendation is not an adequate review design.
Check the consequences of failure
Ask who can be affected, whether the action can be reversed, and how a mistake will be detected. Where the consequences are severe, obtain specialist advice before selecting a system.
Use a smaller preparation-only pilot
If appropriate, test a reversible administrative step using synthetic data. Do not treat success on document formatting as evidence that an automated decision is safe.
A high-value task can still be unsuitable for autonomous execution.