Field cases
What actually changes when an AI workflow meets a real review, a source update, or a payment?
Four implementation teardowns—support triage, content review, research synthesis, and invoice approval—each with its evidence gate, rejected version, and recovery path.
DECISION BRANCH
Answer the decision this topic actually owns.
- ASK FIRST↓
Which step in this case creates an irreversible effect, and which is only a reversible suggestion?
- IF↓
The case shows the evidence, the rejected version, and the recovery path: treat it as a workflow pattern, not a success story.
- OTHERWISE✓
Read it as a story and do not copy the tools or authority.
WORKED CASE
Which of the four cases most resembles your workflow?
Support triage, content review, research synthesis, and invoice approval sit in different departments, but they fail in the same place: the model proposes an executable action without the evidence, authority, or recovery path that action requires.
Treat the case as a template, copy its tool chain and prompt, and skip your own consequences, approvers, and source versions.
Pick the closest case and reuse only its decision order: action levels, evidence gate, rejected version, and unknown-outcome handling. Rewrite the tools and fields for your team.
The team can restate, using one of its own cases: which step is irreversible, who approves, where the evidence is, and who takes over after failure. If it cannot, the workflow is not ready.
ENTRY & EXIT SIGNALS
Know when to enter—and when the decision is good enough to leave.
A topic is not an endless knowledge directory. Entry signals tell you whether the problem belongs at this layer. Exit signals decide whether to continue instead of substituting time spent reading for work completed.
- A demo looks usable
- The team cannot name which step is irreversible
- Reviewers cannot see the evidence or recovery path
- Prepare, approve, and execute are separated
- Every irreversible action has an approver and evidence
- At least one failure drill returns to a known state
4 PRACTICES
Build the judgment, make the artifact, then review it with real cases.
BOUNDARY
What this topic page will not do
These are composite cases that show a decision order; they are not an endorsement of a vendor, industry, or outcome.