Human in the Loop: Where to Put Approvals
Place approvals and tasks for people where they protect the client, and remove them where they only slow things down.
Approve what is hard to undo
A useful rule: a person approves any step that is hard to undo or reaches outside the business. Sending a contract for signature, emailing a client, moving money and publishing content all qualify. Internal steps such as filing a document, drafting a proposal or adding a record usually do not. Approvals placed this way protect the client without making the workflow feel slow.
- Approve: client emails, signature requests, payments, publishing
- Usually no approval: drafts, filing, internal records
- Always approve on public or untrusted inputs
Tasks for people inside the workflow
Some steps are not approvals but real work for a person: call the client, check flagged clauses, confirm stock. Model these as tasks with an owner and a due date. The workflow waits until the person marks the task done, then continues. This keeps the whole process in one place instead of splitting it between software and chat messages.
Earn trust, then relax approvals
Start with more approvals than you think you need. As the client sees drafts approved without changes again and again, relax them for routine steps, with a daily limit and a clear way to switch back. Some platforms, XDQ AgentOS among them, track unchanged approvals so trust is earned step by step rather than assumed.
Worked example: relaxing one approval
A firm's workflow asked for approval on every follow-up email. After several weeks of approving follow-ups without changes, the owner allowed routine follow-ups to send on their own, with a daily limit. Contract signature requests and anything involving money still needed approval.
When a follow-up was edited before approval, the count of unchanged approvals reset, so automation had to be earned again.
Common approval mistakes
Too few approvals cause incidents; too many cause people to click approve without reading. Both erode trust.
- Approving everything, which trains people to stop reading
- Approving nothing on customer-facing steps
- Using chat messages instead of tasks
- Relaxing approvals without evidence
- Approve steps that are hard to undo or reach outside.
- Model real human work as tasks with owners and due dates.
- Start strict and relax approvals as trust builds.
- Use daily limits when routine steps run on their own.
Mark every step in your workflow as approve, task for a person or automatic, with one sentence of reasoning each. Decide which approval could be relaxed later and what evidence would justify it.
Check your understanding
1. Which step usually needs approval?
2. How should real work for a person be modelled?
3. When can approvals be relaxed?
Turn what you learn into monthly income
Resell AI agents and apps under your own brand. Up to 30% off credits, up to 30% recurring share, and apps built by XDQ Labs for your clients. Free to join.
From USD 49 or INR 2,999 a month. A person approves every step.
Templates from our playbooks
Copy ready templates with when to use each one and why it works.