What should I never delegate to AI?
Never delegate two kinds of things to AI: anything irreversible, and anything that requires a responsible human to be accountable. That means AI should not sign attestations or legal documents, send money, make binding legal or medical decisions, or take any action whose damage cannot be undone if it is wrong. AI can draft, analyze, and recommend all of these, but a person makes the final call and puts their name on it. The test is simple: if being wrong cannot be undone, or if someone has to answer for it, it stays human.
The two questions that decide it
Before you hand something to AI, ask:
- What does being wrong cost, and can it be undone? If a mistake is cheap or reversible, let AI take big swings. If a mistake cannot be undone, keep it human.
- Can I personally catch an error before it counts? If you can verify the output, AI can carry more of the work. If you cannot check it and the stakes are real, do not delegate the judgment.
The hard stops
Some things fail both tests every time, and they never get delegated:
- Attestations and signatures. Certifying that something is true, signing a legal or compliance document. A machine cannot be accountable, so a machine cannot attest.
- Moving money or making binding commitments on your behalf without a human approving the specific action.
- Final legal, medical, or safety decisions. AI can inform them. A licensed human makes them.
- Anything whose failure harms a person and cannot be walked back.
The principle underneath
The book states it as a rule: let the machine be smart, but keep the signature. AI can carry enormous amounts of reversible work and take real creative swings, precisely because those mistakes can be caught and undone. What stays yours is the irreversible act and the accountable judgment, because those are the things a machine literally cannot own.
This is the subject of a full chapter and a checklist in Let the AI Be Smart. The free When-Not-to-Delegate checklist is the copy-paste version, and the Council Method is how you verify everything short of the hard stops.
Go deeper: this site's hub page on the Council Method is the full definition. Related questions: Can I use AI for contracts and legal documents?, How do professionals use AI without getting burned?, What is the Council Method?.