Make human review a defined part of the workflow

Give the review a purpose

“A human checks the result” leaves important questions unanswered. Identify the decision the person is expected to make. Are they checking factual accuracy, completeness, tone, a contractual position or permission to disclose information? Different tasks require different competence and evidence. A review step should be designed around the decision it is meant to support.

Provide the evidence needed to decide

Put relevant source information next to the proposed output. Preserve references that let the reviewer find the underlying material. Make missing information visible. When a source cannot be found or does not support a claim, the workflow should make correction or escalation possible. A fluent explanation from the model is not independent evidence.

Define the available actions

A reviewer needs to be able to approve, reject, edit or escalate. Record what happens after each action and who owns the next step. Consider a draft customer email: approval should apply to a specific version, and a subsequent material change should trigger review again. This is an illustrative process design, not a description of a deployed customer system.

Test ordinary cases and exceptions

Include contradictory documents, empty inputs, ambiguous instructions and service failures. Check whether the reviewer can detect the problem and whether an unreviewed draft can reach an external recipient. Review the permissions of the surrounding systems, not just the screen containing the approval button.

Keep the control proportionate

Define what needs to be documented and for how long according to the applicable requirements and purpose. Avoid collecting unnecessary personal data in logs. Periodically examine whether reviewers have enough time, context and competence. A control that people routinely bypass needs a process change, training or a different scope.

General information and practical frameworks. The legal requirements for a particular organization or use case require individual assessment.

The AI Workflow Playbook