The misunderstanding
Approval steps get dismissed as if they only slow the product down. In reality, they often do the opposite: they make the system usable in environments where blind automation would never be accepted.
What approvals actually do
Good approval flows create a clear checkpoint:
- who reviewed the action,
- what policy result they saw,
- what changed after approval,
- and what evidence exists after execution.
Why this matters
If an agent workflow has no accountable handoff, it becomes difficult to trust and difficult to explain. Approval restores both.
Portfolio signal
The more AI touches real-world actions, the more I want approval to show up as a first-class system design choice instead of an afterthought.