What should be automated, and what should remain a human decision?

Automate stable, observable, reversible work; keep people accountable where context, ambiguity, consequence, trust, or exception handling materially affects the decision.

Test the boundary

Ask whether the input is dependable, the rule is explicit, failure is detectable, correction is possible, and an accountable person can intervene. If those conditions are weak, automation may accelerate error or conceal it.

Pascal Bornet’s Irreplaceable emphasizes human judgment, critical thinking, adaptability, and trust alongside AI capability. That is a useful operating principle: automation should increase human capacity without making responsibility disappear.

BotGuide maps the decision and its controls before mapping a tool. The safest first candidates are usually repetitive steps with clear evidence and a manageable failure mode.

Sources

• Irreplaceable, Pascal Bornet (Wiley)

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