Automation design
Where human approval belongs in automation
Run the repeatable checks first. Ask a person to step in when the next action affects a customer, a payment or a contract.
Take an invoice as an example. Software can read the amount and supplier, check the total, look for a duplicate and prepare the record. None of that requires somebody to copy values from a PDF.
An unfamiliar supplier or a total above the agreed limit changes the job. The invoice should wait for a reviewer before anything is sent to accounting. The review screen needs the original file beside the extracted values, the check that raised the flag and the action waiting for approval. If the extraction is uncertain, say so on the screen.
Record what the reviewer saw
Save the decision with the reviewer, time and version of the document. If someone asks later why the invoice moved forward, the team can see the information available at the time. If a run fails, they can also tell whether it stopped before review, after approval or while sending the result onward.
That is the boundary I use: automate preparation, then pause where a person needs to take responsibility for the next step.