# Where to Put the Approval Step in an AI Agent | Gr8r Studio > How to design approval steps for AI agents: a risk and reversibility grid, four approval surfaces, what every approval screen shows, and approval fatigue. Source: https://gr8rstudio.com/blog/design-review-step-ai-agent [AI Agents](https://gr8rstudio.com/blog) # Designing the Review Step Before an AI Agent Acts Tanjim Islam Founder & CEO 路 26 Oct 26 路 5 min read Summarise with AI [Summarise with AI: ChatGPT](https://chatgpt.com/?q=Summarise%20the%20key%20points%20of%20this%20article%20from%20Gr8r%20Studio%2C%20then%20tell%20me%20how%20they%20apply%20to%20my%20product%20or%20workflow%3A%20https%3A%2F%2Fgr8rstudio.com%2Fblog%2Fdesign-review-step-ai-agent)[Summarise with AI: Claude](https://claude.ai/new?q=Summarise%20the%20key%20points%20of%20this%20article%20from%20Gr8r%20Studio%2C%20then%20tell%20me%20how%20they%20apply%20to%20my%20product%20or%20workflow%3A%20https%3A%2F%2Fgr8rstudio.com%2Fblog%2Fdesign-review-step-ai-agent)[Summarise with AI: Perplexity](https://www.perplexity.ai/search?q=Summarise%20the%20key%20points%20of%20this%20article%20from%20Gr8r%20Studio%2C%20then%20tell%20me%20how%20they%20apply%20to%20my%20product%20or%20workflow%3A%20https%3A%2F%2Fgr8rstudio.com%2Fblog%2Fdesign-review-step-ai-agent) On this page 1. [ 01Why does the approval step matter so much?](#why-does-the-approval-step-matter-so-much) 2. [ 02Where should approvals go? The risk and reversibility grid](#where-should-approvals-go-the-risk-and-reversibility-grid) 3. [ 03What are the four approval surfaces?](#what-are-the-four-approval-surfaces) 4. [ 04What should every approval screen show?](#what-should-every-approval-screen-show) 5. [ 05How do you measure approval fatigue?](#how-do-you-measure-approval-fatigue) 6. [ 06How does this fit the rest of the agent UI?](#how-does-this-fit-the-rest-of-the-agent-ui) 7. [ 07Frequently asked questions](#frequently-asked-questions) 8. [ 08Next step](#next-step) 9. [ 09Related reading](#related-reading) This article supports [AI Integrations & Agents](https://gr8rstudio.com/services/ai-workflow-automation)[Discuss your agent](https://cal.com/tanjim-38/30min) ## TL;DR - Put the approval step wherever an AI agent's action is costly or hard to undo. - Score each action on risk and reversibility: low risk and reversible runs alone with an undo, high risk or irreversible waits for a person. - Then pick one of four approval surfaces, inline confirm, diff review, queue or batch, to fit how often it happens. ## Why does the approval step matter so much? The approval step is where a person and an agent share responsibility. Put it in the wrong place and you get one of two failures. Too few approvals, and the agent sends the wrong email to a customer. Too many, and people click approve without reading, which is worse, because everyone believes a human checked. The OWASP Top 10 for LLM applications (2025) lists "excessive agency" as a risk: AI systems given more ability to act than the task needs ([OWASP GenAI Security Project, LLM Top 10](https://genai.owasp.org/llm-top-10/)). A well placed approval step is one of the plainest defenses. ## Where should approvals go? The risk and reversibility grid Score each action the agent can take on two questions. What does a mistake cost? Can it be undone? | | Easy to undo | Hard or impossible to undo | | ---------------------- | ---------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------ | | **Low cost if wrong** | Act alone, show in log, offer undo | Act with a short undo window, or confirm inline | | **High cost if wrong** | Approve in a queue or diff review | Always approve, with full detail and a second look for the largest | Examples help. Tagging a ticket is low cost and easy to undo: act alone. Sending a customer reply is low cost per item but cannot be unsent: confirm or allow a short delay to cancel. Changing a price in your catalog costs more but can be reversed: review the diff. Paying a supplier is high cost and hard to reverse: always approve. Microsoft's Fluent 2 guidance says an agent should "express its autonomy level by communicating its triggers, access permissions, and action rights" ([Microsoft Fluent 2, Responsible AI](https://fluent2.microsoft.design/responsible-AI/)). The grid is how you decide those action rights, one action at a time. ## What are the four approval surfaces? ### Inline confirm Illustrative diagram based on this article. Not product UI, not real data. A small confirm right where the person is working: "Send this reply?" with the text visible. Use it for low volume actions the person started themselves. ### Diff review Before and after, side by side, with changes highlighted and approve, edit and reject buttons. Use it when the agent changes something that already exists, such as a contract clause or a product record. ### Queue A list of proposed actions waiting for a person, sorted by urgency, each opening into its detail. Use it when the agent works in the background and an ops team reviews its proposals through the day. ### Batch A group of similar proposals approved together, with the uncertain ones pulled out for individual review. Use it for high volume, similar items. ## What should every approval screen show? The review screen needs to show six things: - **What will happen.** In a sentence: "Pay one invoice to Supplier X, due Friday." - **The exact change.** Fields, values, recipients. - **Why.** The source the agent used, linked. - **How sure.** Plain wording when the agent is less confident, and what to check. More in [how to show AI confidence and sources](https://gr8rstudio.com/blog/show-ai-confidence-in-ui). - **Edit.** A way to change it before approving. - **Equal buttons.** Approve and reject the same size. A tiny reject link nudges people to approve. Gr8r works in this space too. [Convoy](https://supply-chain-command-center-opal.vercel.app/?v=2), a supply chain command center, has an approval queue where each row shows the proposed change, its added cost, a percentage score, a deadline to decide, and Review, Reject and Approve buttons side by side. Its autonomy setting reads: "Agents act alone on low-risk changes under $2K. Everything else waits for you." Built by Gr8r for its own portfolio. Not client work. ## How do you measure approval fatigue? Watch what people do in the approval step. Four signals tell you when it has become a rubber stamp. | Signal | What it suggests | | ---------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------- | | Time to approve keeps falling | People have stopped reading | | Rejection rate near zero for weeks | The step may not be needed, or nobody is checking | | Edits before approval rare | The detail on screen may be ignored | | Errors found after approval | The step is failing at its job | When these show up, either let the agent act alone on that action, with undo and a log, or redesign the screen so the important detail is impossible to miss. Leaving a useless approval in place teaches people to click through all of them. ## How does this fit the rest of the agent UI? Approval is one of nine agent patterns, alongside plan preview, step logs and undo. The full set is in [AI agent UI patterns](https://gr8rstudio.com/blog/ai-agent-ui-patterns), and the wider trust playbook is in [AI UX design: the seven screen states](https://gr8rstudio.com/blog/ai-product-design-guide). We design and build approval flows as part of our [AI agent development](https://gr8rstudio.com/services/ai-workflow-automation) work. ## Frequently asked questions ### When should an AI agent ask permission? Ask when the action costs money, cannot be undone, reaches a customer, or goes out under someone's name. Let the agent act alone when the action is cheap, reversible and visible, and give people an undo. ### How do you avoid approval fatigue? Ask for approval only where it matters, batch similar low risk items, show only what changed, and track how fast people approve. If approvals take a second each and are almost never rejected, the step has become a rubber stamp and needs redesigning. ### Can AI agent approvals be batched? Yes, for similar items with similar risk, such as fifty invoice matches from the same supplier. Group them, highlight the ones the agent is unsure about, and let people approve the rest together. Keep risky or unusual items out of the batch. ### What should an AI agent approval screen show? Exactly what will happen, to which record, with what values, and why the agent proposed it. Show the source it used, let the person edit before approving, and make reject and approve equally easy. ### Should approve and reject buttons look the same? Yes. Make them the same size. A tiny reject link nudges people to approve without reading. ## Next step [Relay](https://relay-workflow-os.vercel.app) applies the same idea to business tasks: a drafted refund for a duplicate charge sits in its Needs attention list until someone reviews it. Built by Gr8r for its own portfolio. Not client work. It runs on demo data, so it shows the screens, not results. Relay, built by Gr8r for its own portfolio. Not client work. Demo data. Screenshot from 6 Nov 2026 checks. If you want help with this, [book a 30 minute call](https://cal.com/tanjim-38/30min). ## Related reading - [AI agent development](https://gr8rstudio.com/services/ai-workflow-automation) - [how to build AI agents for business](https://gr8rstudio.com/blog/build-ai-agents-for-business) - [AI agent UI patterns](https://gr8rstudio.com/blog/ai-agent-ui-patterns) - [how to show AI confidence and sources](https://gr8rstudio.com/blog/show-ai-confidence-in-ui) - [what AI automation is](https://gr8rstudio.com/blog/what-is-ai-automation) - [who owns the code, prompts and data](https://gr8rstudio.com/blog/ai-ownership-checklist) _Tanjim Islam is the founder of Gr8r Studio, a digital product and AI engineering partner for scaleups and enterprise teams, founded in 2023._ Written by Tanjim Islam Founder & CEO Share [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fgr8rstudio.com%2Fblog%2Fdesign-review-step-ai-agent)[X](https://x.com/intent/post?url=https%3A%2F%2Fgr8rstudio.com%2Fblog%2Fdesign-review-step-ai-agent&text=Designing%20the%20Review%20Step%20Before%20an%20AI%20Agent%20Acts) This article supports [AI Integrations & Agents](https://gr8rstudio.com/services/ai-workflow-automation)[Discuss your agent](https://cal.com/tanjim-38/30min) ## Keep reading - [ AI Agents 26 Oct 26 7 min read How to Build AI Agents for Business WorkflowsHow to build AI agents for business: pick one task, write a one page spec, limit the tools, build a test set, design the screens and run it with a plan.By Tanjim Islam](https://gr8rstudio.com/blog/build-ai-agents-for-business) - [ AI Agents 26 Oct 26 7 min read AI Agent, Chatbot or Workflow: Which Do You Need?AI agent vs chatbot vs workflow: ask who decides the next step and who starts the work, then use the decision grid and ten classified examples to pick one.By Tanjim Islam](https://gr8rstudio.com/blog/ai-agent-vs-chatbot) - [ AI Agents 26 Oct 26 6 min read AI Agent UI Patterns That Keep Users in ControlAI agent UI patterns: nine screens that show what an agent plans, does and did, matched to autonomy levels, with a design review checklist.By Tanjim Islam](https://gr8rstudio.com/blog/ai-agent-ui-patterns) ## Book a call with our CEO. 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