03 / Set the boundaries
What should AI be allowed to do?
Give AI a clear preparation task. Keep choices that depend on your context and commitments that affect people or money under your control.
You can split a task into three parts: what AI prepares, what it helps you compare, and what you approve.
What can AI do when planning a trip?
AI can prepare a hotel shortlist and compare options against your requirements. You check the details and approve the booking. Finding hotels, choosing one, and paying for it are separate decisions.
AI prepares
Make a shortlist.
Give it the dates, location, budget, and requirements. Ask for hotel links and the terms it found. Open the links yourself to check current prices, availability, and cancellation conditions.
AI helps
Compare the trade-offs.
One hotel is quiet; another is central. AI can organise that comparison. You decide which matters more to the people taking the trip.
You approve
Choose and commit.
Review the exact hotel, dates, total cost, and terms before booking. Keep payment under your control.
Illustrative example. No hotel search or booking is represented here.
Where should you draw the line?
Ask what happens if the result is wrong. A draft you can delete is different from a message someone receives or a record that is permanently changed.
| Task | AI can prepare | You approve |
|---|---|---|
| Client email | A reply using the facts you supply | The promises, recipient, and final send |
| Spreadsheet cleanup | Suggested fixes on a copy | Merges, deletions, and changes to original records |
| Tomorrow’s plan | Time blocks using your deadlines | Priorities and commitments to other people |
The boundary depends on the task, the tools, your organisation’s rules, and the cost of a mistake. Clear instructions alone don’t make a consequential action safe.
How do you make the boundary real?
Use the tool’s access and approval controls. Give it only the information and permissions the task needs. If you only need a draft, don’t enable sending or payment access for the exercise.
When a tool asks for approval, read the actual action and its details. If it can’t reliably stop before an action, keep that action manual.
These precautions align with OpenAI’s guidance on limiting access and reviewing agent actions. A line in a prompt is not an enforced permission boundary.
What should you include when delegating to AI?
Define the task, permitted information and access, required checks, and the action that needs approval. Name who approves that action and tell the tool to stop if the next step exceeds its scope.
Task: AI may prepare: AI may help compare: Information it may use: Access it needs: What I will check: Stop before: Who approves the next action: If information is missing or the next step exceeds this scope, stop and flag it.Download the worksheet
Hrishi Bhat builds AI workflows and teaches non-technical professionals how to use them, with results they can check.