Who it is for, and how long it takes
| Who it is for | How long | What you need | What you end with |
|---|
| Executives, founders and team leads giving AI agents real work, who need clear limits. | About 90 minutes for the first version, then 15 minutes a month to review. | A list of your team's routine actions, one person who signs off the rules, and a week of agent drafts if you have them. | A one-page set of rules in three lists, one owner for them, and a monthly review date. |
Key takeaways
- Three lists: runs without asking, asks first, never. Most actions start in the middle.
- Sort by what an action can break. Money, promises to buyers, legal terms and anything that cannot be undone stay with people.
- Move an action up only on evidence, and write down who moved it and when.
Teams that skip approval rules end up with one of two problems: every draft waits on one busy person, or an agent sends something nobody would have approved. A one-page set of rules avoids both. The same rules work for new hires and outside contractors, so writing them once pays off twice.
Worked example. The examples use Vaultex, a safety-footwear manufacturer in Greater Noida and GeniOS's first design partner. The buyers, orders and dates are for illustration only.
PrepBefore you start
Bring these to the 90-minute session.
- The person who will sign off the rules, usually the founder or the executive who runs operations.
- Each team lead's list of routine weekly actions.
- Any agent drafts and edits you already have, as evidence.
- Your current limits for people: who can agree prices, discounts, payment terms and refunds.
- Anything a regulator, an auditor or a buyer contract requires a person to do.
- A one-page doc where the rules will live, readable by agents, new hires and GeniOS.
- A 15-minute monthly review in the signer's calendar.
StepsThe steps
90 min · 7 steps
- List the routine actions
Write down every action your team repeats each week: replying to suppliers, booking meetings, sending quotes, updating the order sheet, chasing payments and confirming dispatch. Aim for 20 to 30 lines. At Vaultex, Harsh, Mayank and Anushka each add theirs.
- Mark what each action can break
Next to each, write the worst outcome if it goes wrong: a wrong price, a missed meeting, a broken promise to a buyer, a legal term agreed by mistake. Note whether it can be undone. A meeting invite can be moved, while a price sent to Bata is hard to take back.
- Write the never list first
Some actions stay with people whatever the evidence: agreeing prices, payment terms, contracts, refunds and anything said to a regulator or auditor. At Vaultex, Bata's request for 60-day payment terms is Mayank's decision and stays on this list. Keep it short and absolute.
- Put almost everything else in asks first
In this list an agent drafts and a person approves before anything goes out. Every new agent starts here. With GeniOS this is the default: nothing is sent until a person approves, and each piece of intelligence names one owner.
- Keep runs without asking to actions that send nothing
Start this list with internal, reversible actions: preparing a draft, setting a reminder, assigning an owner, adding a hold to your own calendar. Nothing here reaches a customer, supplier or bank. It grows slowly, and only on evidence.
- Set the bar for moving an action
Agree what it takes to move an action up a list, such as four weeks of approvals with no edits. Track how much work agents close and how often a person steps in, because those two numbers show when a move is earned. Write down who moved it, when and why.
- Review monthly, and after any mistake
Spend 15 minutes each month on the rules with the person who signed them. After any mistake, move the action down a list first and investigate second. Store the rules where agents, new hires and GeniOS can all read them.
TemplateCopy this approval rule page
One page, three lists, one owner. Swap the examples for your own team.
Approval rules, version [n], signed by [name] on [date]. Next review: [date].
Runs without asking: preparing drafts; setting internal reminders; assigning an owner to an item; adding a hold to your own calendar. Nothing here reaches anyone outside the company.
Asks first (an agent drafts, the named owner approves): supplier follow-ups (Harsh); buyer meeting invites (Harsh); payment reminders (Mayank); dispatch confirmations (Anushka).
Never (people only): prices and discounts; payment terms; contracts and refunds; anything said to a regulator or auditor; any commitment of production capacity.
To move an action up a list: four weeks of approvals with no edits, agreed by [name], logged here with the date and reason.
After a mistake: move the action down one list the same day, then investigate.
ExampleWorked example: Vaultex writes its first page
How Harsh, Mayank and Anushka might build the first version in one sitting.
The list. Each of them writes down their weekly actions. Together they reach 26 lines, from supplier follow-ups to dispatch confirmations.
What can break. A meeting invite can be moved. A price sent to Bata on 12,000 pairs, about $144,000, is hard to take back. A wrong date in a reply to the Adidas auditor could cost trust that took years to build.
The never list. Prices, discounts and payment terms come first. Bata's request for 60-day payment terms is Mayank's decision and stays with him. Anything said to the Adidas auditor stays with people, and so does confirming capacity on Line 2.
Asks first. Supplier follow-ups, including the note on the steel toe-cap supplier's 8% price rise, go through a Reply Drafter with Harsh approving. Reminders about the Reebok samples due 15 November go through Anushka.
A month later. Supplier follow-ups have had four weeks of approvals with no edits, so Harsh's approval becomes a quick read, and the page notes it. Anushka asked for internal holds on the test lab calendar to run without asking. In week two one hold double-booked a slot, so the action moved back to asks first that afternoon, and the missing context was added to the page.
MistakesCommon mistakes
Five ways approval rules fail, by being too loose or too slow.
- Starting with a long runs-without-asking list. Trust has to be earned on evidence. Start almost everything in asks first.
- A never list with exceptions. "Never, unless it is small" stops being a rule. Keep it short and absolute.
- One approver for everything. Approvals pile up on one desk. Send each to the person who owns the work.
- Moving actions on a feeling. Write down the evidence, the name and the date.
- Rules nobody can find. Store them where agents, new hires and GeniOS all read them.
What good looks like after
- The rules fit on one page, and everyone on the team can find them.
- Money, contracts and promises to buyers stay with people, with no exceptions.
- Approvers spend less time each week as low-risk drafts need fewer edits.
- Every change to the rules has a name, a date and a reason.
- After a mistake, the rule changed the same day.
If approvals pile up on one person, split the asks-first list by owner, so each approval goes to the person who owns that work.
How to know it worked
Check these at each monthly review. The first agent these rules govern usually comes from Choosing your first agent, and the never list matters most in audit preparation. For the wider view on enterprise AI governance, read Enterprise AI governance, The human and AI operating model and decision and approval intelligence.
| What to measure | How to check it | A good sign |
|---|
| Rules on one page that people can find | Ask two newer team members to find them | Both can, inside a minute |
| Approvals waiting more than a day | Count them each Friday | Few, and none stuck on one person |
| Drafts approved with no edits | Count per kind of action | Rising for the routine ones |
| Changes logged | Read the page | Every change has a name, a date and a reason |
| Time from a mistake to a rule change | Check the log | The same day |