01

Distinguish assistance from action

A system that drafts a reply and a workflow that sends it create different operating requirements. Start by naming what the proposed automation may read, prepare, change or submit. Ask providers to explain those boundaries without relying on the word agent. This makes the business consequence of the design easier to review.

02

Choose the approval points

Identify decisions your people need to retain. A change to customer records, a supplier instruction or an external message may need a different review path from an internal summary. Put the expected approval behaviour in the requirement. Ask how the workflow stops when approval is missing, information conflicts or an authorised person is unavailable.

03

Ask about difficult behaviour

Request examples of incomplete input, an unavailable integration and an output that fails your acceptance check. Discuss how the team will investigate the sequence of actions and recover from a mistake. These are questions for evaluating the proposed design, not a claim that any single logging feature makes autonomous operation safe.

04

Make a bounded assessment useful

When the proposed use is unfamiliar, start with a scoped assessment of the real task. Agree what the assessment must show and which actions remain outside its authority. BlueBlocks helps turn that uncertainty into a clear specialist requirement. Your organisation can then compare the findings before deciding which work to commission next.

Turn the guidance into your brief.

Record the outcome, scope, assumptions and outstanding decisions in a shared requirement. Ask every invited provider to respond to the same version, and keep missing information visible rather than treating silence as agreement.

BlueBlocks helps structure that conversation. Specialist discovery that requires substantial work can be quoted as its own project before implementation is commissioned.

Take these questions into the conversation.

  • What is the workflow authorised to change?
  • Where is human approval required?
  • How can the organisation stop and investigate an action?

Explore the work behind this question.

When the next step needs specialist expertise, start with a focused requirement. Explore the service, then talk to BlueBlocks about what fits your organisation.

Research & references Reviewed 2 November 2026

These primary sources inform the context and questions on this page. Procurement recommendations are BlueBlocks editorial guidance. A cited organisation does not endorse BlueBlocks; applicability depends on your systems and obligations.