AI service planning
Human Review Boundaries for AI Agents
Which AI agent actions can run automatically and which must stay with a person — for Canadian small and mid-sized businesses.
The conclusion
Let the agent handle approved, reversible, low-stakes steps; keep money, legal meaning, personal data edge cases, and binding promises under human review.
Human-in-the-loop is not a slogan. It is a list of actions the agent may finish alone and a list it must queue. Auto-send a FAQ answer from an approved library: usually fine. Change a price, confirm a contract term, approve a refund, or interpret a medical or immigration edge case: stop and route.
Write the boundary in the same place staff already work — CRM stage, ticket tag, or checklist — so review is not optional tribal knowledge. After go-live, sample both auto-closed and escalated cases. If the agent keeps guessing at the edge of policy, shrink what it can finish alone. PIPEDA-minded access still applies: the agent should only see what the workflow needs, and sensitive exceptions stay with named people.
Implementation steps
- 01
Split the action list
Mark each step as auto, draft-only, or human-required before any integration goes live.
- 02
Define trigger phrases
Uncertainty, payment, legal, identity, complaints, and out-of-policy asks always escalate with full context.
- 03
Keep an audit trail
Store what the agent said, which source it used, and who approved any override.
- 04
Tune from samples
Weekly at first: fix wrong auto-closes and remove actions that keep failing review.
Scope and safeguards
- Do not let an agent sign, bind, refund, or give professional advice outside an approved script.
- Do not hide escalations in a channel nobody monitors during business hours.
Frequently asked questions
Can everything require human review?
Yes, but then you mostly built a drafting tool. Review should focus on high-impact actions so staff time goes where mistakes hurt.
Who owns the boundary list?
The same person who owns the workflow after launch — usually operations or the team lead for that channel.
Official and trusted sources
Summary
Let the agent handle approved, reversible, low-stakes steps; keep money, legal meaning, personal data edge cases, and binding promises under human review.