Task framing
What exactly should AI do—and should it do it at all?
Decide whether AI belongs in the task, then make the expected behavior concrete enough to test with real inputs, a human fallback, and clear stop conditions.
DECISION BRANCH
Do not begin with the tool name.
- ASK FIRST↓
Is the missing piece a fact, a standard, or model capability?
- IF↓
The result is verifiable and the failure cost is bounded, expand carefully.
- OTHERWISE✓
Narrow the action, keep the human handoff, and preserve recovery.
WORKED CASE
Which part of support triage should actually be automated?
A team receives about 900 messages a week and wants AI to identify intent, assign a queue, and send replies. Those three actions carry different consequences but appear in the brief as one task: ‘automate support email.’
Treat the entire workflow as suitable because it is repetitive and high-volume, with saved time as the only justification.
Separate reading, judging, routing, drafting, and sending. Begin with reversible classification suggestions and drafts; keep mixed intent, sensitive data, and refund commitments with a person.
Review 50 historical messages and 10 boundary cases. Mixed-intent cases never auto-send, sensitive fields stay out of the model, and reviewers can see the rationale and handoff route.
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.
- The request still says ‘use AI for efficiency’
- Actions with different consequences are bundled into one task
- Acceptable output and human handoff are missing
- The AI action can be named with one precise verb
- Input, boundary, failure consequence, and owner are explicit
- A small set of real cases can support continue or stop
3 PRACTICES
Build the judgment, make the artifact, then review it with real cases.
BOUNDARY
What this topic page will not do
This topic scopes an AI-assisted step; it is not a compliance certification for legal, medical, employment, financial, or other high-stakes decisions.