Human authority in agentic workflows
An agentic workflow is only as trustworthy as the human-authority boundary designed into it from the start.
As AI systems move from answering questions to taking multi-step actions, the design question shifts from 'is the output accurate' to 'what is this system allowed to do without a person deciding first'.
A workable answer requires defining, for every agentic workflow, which actions may be suggested, which may be prepared for human approval, and which, if any, may be automated outright under tightly bounded conditions. This boundary should be explicit in the system design, not left to a model's judgement at runtime.
Equally important is traceability: every recommendation or action needs a visible evidence trail, so a reviewing human can understand why the system reached a conclusion, not just what the conclusion was.
Organisations that treat human authority as a design constraint from the outset tend to move faster into production, because governance and audit questions are already answered before the system is deployed.