Should AI agents ever act without human approval?
by•
We hear both extremes. Some teams want AI that only drafts, and a human clicks send on everything. Others want full autonomy.
Where we've landed: let the AI act freely on routine work inside clear rules (book the meeting, update the CRM, send the reminder).
Anything outside the rules, like a non-standard discount or a dispute, waits for a named person. The offer stays unchanged while approval is pending.
It's a middle ground, and we keep adjusting where the line sits for each customer.
Where would you draw it? Which actions would you never let an AI take on its own?
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Yes, once they've earned it, per action and per channel. A new agent drafts and a person approves, and every approval is a data point. Once a channel has a track record, let it run inside limits you set: posts per day, quiet hours, a budget cap.
What I'd never automate: anything you can't take back, like a refund outside policy, a contract, or a reply to an upset customer.
We build agents for healthcare billing, so for us the line is set by what a mistake costs, not by how confident the agent is. Routine, reversible work like posting a payment or checking a claim status can run on its own, with every step logged. Anything with financial or regulatory exposure, like an appeal or a write-off, waits for a person. We also don’t hand out autonomy all at once. An agent earns it per workflow, after it’s proven itself on real data.
One thing I'd add is that approval should be tied to the exact action. If the agent changes the amount, recipient, or message after review, that approval should expire and come back for another look.