Your choices
More done.
More say in what happens.
Automation should expand what you can do while keeping the important choices in your hands.
Trust should be earned
in the work.
Can it do the job? Can it notice a mistake? Can it help put things right? Those are better reasons to trust automation than a confident answer.
Ask to see what happened, how it was checked and what remains uncertain. Trust can grow with the evidence, task by task.
A system that gets better at its job still needs to respect the permission it was given. A repair that goes beyond the permission given needs another decision.
What would convince you to let more of the work run?
You set the limits.
You should know what will change, what is at risk, how long permission lasts and what can continue without asking again.
One account is not every account. One payment is not unlimited spending. One approved update is not permission to rewrite the whole system.
When a proposed change goes beyond your permission, the decision comes back. You can take back permission for work that can still be stopped. You should be able to see what stopped and what had already happened.
Your later judgment matters too. Even when a change cannot be undone, it can change what you allow next.
Where should your yes end?
Follow a decision as the plan changesAccess should not
be a blank cheque.
A contractor may need access to maintain a system. A member of staff may need to inspect records. Neither job calls for unlimited power to change, erase or release what is there.
The same question matters whether an unwanted change begins with a mistake, a stolen account or someone deliberately causing harm: what must they be unable to do without separate permission?
The limits need to include changes to the limits themselves. An easy way to remove the lock defeats the reason for having it.
What should remain protected—even when someone gets in?
When something goes wrongDelegate the work.
Keep your judgment.
You should be able to ask for a clearer explanation, compare options, take another opinion or say no. Delegating should give you more room to think.
Ask what happens if you pause, refuse, change provider or choose to do something yourself. If the answer is pressure, confusion or dependence you cannot escape, something important is missing.
When information is private, you also need a clear way to know whom you can consult. Confidentiality should not leave you alone with a decision you do not understand.
Does the help leave you more able to choose?
More should be possible
for more people.
The promise reaches beyond faster work: greater income, better care, stronger public services, scientific discovery and more capacity to look after the planet.
Making more bread is one achievement. Getting it to people who need it is another. The same is true of knowledge, tools and opportunity.
Ask who receives the gains, who carries the disruption and whether people affected have a way to be heard. Our ambition is for useful automation to expand independence and prosperity across society.
Who benefits when the work becomes easier?
A few useful words
See the decision in a live payment-network example.
What changes
A consequence is what actually happens to a record, resource, person or situation.
Who may decide
Legitimate responsibility for allowing a change, within a defined scope. Owning a key alone does not establish it.
Permission already given
Standing permission covers defined work for a stated time, within its limits, without asking again for every step.
What you said yes to
Approval tied to the particular action and material terms presented. An exact yes does not guarantee the outcome.
Permission and limits
The defined permission: who may act, where, for what, within which limits and until when.
Keys and credentials
A key or credential helps a system check identity or permission. Possessing one does not settle which changes someone is entitled to make.
Saying no
A person can refuse a proposal. A system can refuse because permission is missing or invalid. Its record should say which happened. Silence never supplies permission.
Taking permission back
Expressing that choice, the system receiving it and stopping the work are separate events. A later change of mind also belongs in the record, even after completion.
The receipt
A record of a reported decision or outcome, within a defined scope. It does not grant permission for another action.
What remains unknown
Uncertainty includes missing evidence, unsettled assumptions and outcomes that have not been confirmed.
Having it reviewed
A person or process with appropriate responsibility examines a decision and has defined powers to respond.
Putting something right
A remedy changes what can be changed, such as correcting a record. Review does not guarantee a remedy or reversal.
Room to choose
Human independence is the practical ability to understand, choose, delegate, question, get help, refuse and change course.
Where the limit holds
The actual change, routes and conditions within which a limit is enforced.
Who benefits
What improves, who can use that improvement, and who carries its costs or disruption.