The Human Bit method
Protect the human bit
Make judgement, accountability, relationships and the final stopping point visible before deciding what technology may do.
How it works
The human boundary is not a generic instruction to keep somebody involved. It names the parts of a specific workflow that require judgement, responsibility, care or trust.
A good boundary also states when a person must intervene: uncertainty, an unusual case, sensitive information or an action that affects another person.
See the difference
AI drafts a response to a difficult customer complaint. The account owner checks the history, decides what is fair and sends the final response in their own name.
A system scores a complaint and automatically rejects it without a visible owner, appeal path or review of exceptional circumstances.
Watch for this failure
A ceremonial review step where the person is expected to approve too much work too quickly and cannot meaningfully challenge the result.
Questions to ask
- Who owns the final consequence?
- Which decisions require context, care or professional judgement?
- What uncertainty must trigger a human review?
- Can the reviewer realistically detect the important errors?