Earned autonomy, installed in five phases
AI that sticks is AI with owners, baselines and a plan for when it's wrong. This is the operating discipline behind every build.
Every workflow starts supervised.
Red: Human decides
Autonomy is earned with data. It's never assumed.
Human decides
AI researches, summarizes and drafts. A person makes every call. Every new workflow begins here, as does anything involving money, legal risk or an unhappy customer.
Move on when: a labeled test set exists and accuracy is measured.
Human approves
AI takes the action, but a person checks it before it reaches a customer or a system of record. Uncertain items go to their own review queue.
Watch: accuracy, approvals without edits, escalation rate.
AI runs, people spot-check
One task type at a time is promoted, only after it holds its target accuracy. A sample is still reviewed every month.
Demotion is normal: if accuracy slips, it goes back to Yellow.
Five phases. Rules before the build.
Owners, risk levels and a failure plan come first, so automation lands on clean processes.
What you keep
- Workflow maps and baselines
- Approval matrix: who signs off on what
- Labeled test set for each agent
- Runbook and "if it breaks" playbook
- Accounts and automations in your name
AlignWeeks 1–2
Owner interview, goals, a readiness check, an inventory of tools and unofficial AI use, and a shortlist of candidate workflows.
MapWeeks 2–3
Document the top three workflows step by step and measure today's baseline: time, cost, errors.
GovernWeeks 3–4
Name an owner for each workflow, set risk levels, decide what needs approval, and write the 'what if it breaks' plan before building.
DeployWeeks 4–8
Build against those rules and run side by side with the current process until quality targets are met.
OptimizeOngoing
Monthly review of results, exceptions and spend. Workflows move from Yellow to Green only when the data supports it.
Find the three workflows worth automating first.
A free 20-minute call. No pitch deck. We look at where your team's hours go and whether AI is actually the right fix.