Approval Gate
A point in an AI workflow where an action is suspended until a human reviews and approves, rejects, or modifies it.
Production AI is not a prompt. It is a system of context, tools, permissions, traces, evals, and feedback loops.
What it is
An approval gate is a deliberate pause point in an agent workflow where a high-impact action (sending an email, modifying production data, paying an invoice) is held until a human signs off. The agent prepares the action with full context; the human reviews; the workflow either proceeds, gets sent back, or is closed.
Why it matters
Not every AI decision is safe to ship unattended. Approval gates concentrate human judgment on the decisions that need it, leaving the agent to handle everything routine. Done right, they shift human review from 'check every output' (which collapses under volume) to 'check the cases that matter' (which scales).
How it works
The workflow declares which steps require approval, by what role, with what SLA. A pending decision lands in an approval inbox with the trigger event, the proposed action, the agent's reasoning, and the trace. The reviewer approves, rejects with reason, or modifies. Reject and modify events feed the eval set so similar cases become self-handling over time.
Related resources
Approval gates that put a human in the loop where correctness, risk, or accountability actually require human judgment — designed as part of the workflow, not as a panic button bolted on after launch.
A capability in the Group e-media information AI stack. This resource connects the subject to data substrate, agent runtime, evals, and operations.
A capability in the Group e-media information AI stack. This resource connects the subject to data substrate, agent runtime, evals, and operations.
A capability in the Group e-media information AI stack. This resource connects the subject to data substrate, agent runtime, evals, and operations.