Vic Sol · Decision DeskOne-page sheet · 5 min to use
Three things I would never leave to AI
For managers who define what does and does not go through AI in their area, and want to say it on one page instead of arguing it case by case.
When to use it
Someone on the team sent a client an AI-written text without reading it and it had to be explained.
You get asked "can AI do this?" three times a week and answer differently each time.
You are about to write the area's AI policy and need the "what not" part.
The sheet
AI can prepare. What carries your name, you decide. That is the line: not that AI is bad, but that some things have consequences and someone answers for them.
What carries your name
Delegated to AI (it prepares)
Reviewed (AI prepares, a person decides)
Stays with a person
The criterion behind it
1 · Decisions about people: hiring, evaluating, letting someone go
Sorting interview notes, comparing a CV with the profile, a draft of questions.
The final comparison between candidates; the draft of an evaluation.
The decision and the conversation in which it is delivered.
It affects someone's life and the decision is yours.
2 · Sensitive messages: bad news to a client or to the team
Message structure, checking dates and figures, a shorter version.
The final text, read aloud by whoever sends it.
Deciding how it is said and who says it.
There, how you say it and who says it matter.
3 · What you sign: a figure, a contract, a commitment
Document summary, comparing versions, checking the sums.
Every point in the summary against the original document.
The signature and the line-by-line review before it.
If it carries your signature, you must have reviewed it yourself.
4 · Your fourth row (specific to your area): __________
Reading rule: if a task lands in the "stays with a person" column, write that person's name. "The team" does not sign.
How to fill it in 5 minutes
Read the three rows aloud with your team. Almost everyone agrees with the first column and argues about the third.
For each row, ask: "What did AI do the last time we touched this?". What it already does without discomfort goes under "delegated".
Put a name in every "stays with a person" cell. A role works; a committee does not.
Add the fourth row: the thing in your area that carries a name and is not in the three (a quote, a diagnosis, a payment authorisation).
The most common mistake: treating the three columns as prohibitions. The first column is explicit permission. Let AI prepare, by all means. Let it decide what has consequences, no.
The line that is almost always missing
The middle column. Teams argue "all or nothing": either AI does it or it is off limits. Almost everything that carries your name lives in the middle: AI prepares, a named person reviews and decides. Without that column, people delegate too much out of convenience or too little out of fear.
Vic Sol · Decision Desk · vicsol.org/resources/ · Free to use with attribution. This sheet structures a conversation; it is not legal, financial or audit advice.
Open the .docx in Word (or the .xlsx in Excel) or print it before the meeting.
Fill the fields with the team; leave the blanks visible, they are the discussion.
Close with one owner, one date and one next action. Nothing else.
Prompt
Generate this sheet for your case
Paste this prompt into ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini together with your proposal, process or policy. It reproduces the sheet with your data and flags what is missing.
Act as an area manager with 15 years of experience who has watched teams delegate too much out of convenience and too little out of fear, and who separates clearly what AI prepares from what a person decides.
Context I am giving you:
- Area and type of company: [ ]
- Tasks the team already does with AI, formal or not: [ ]
- Decisions in the area that affect people (hiring, evaluating, letting go): [ ]
- Sensitive messages that leave the area (bad news to clients or to the team): [ ]
- Documents or figures someone in the area signs: [ ]
What I need: a delegation map with exactly these columns: What carries your name · Delegated to AI (it prepares) · Reviewed (AI prepares, a person decides) · Stays with a person · The criterion behind it.
1. Row 1: decisions about people.
2. Row 2: sensitive messages.
3. Row 3: what gets signed.
4. Row 4: the thing specific to my area that carries a name and is not in the three above; propose one from what I gave you and flag it as a proposal.
Every row must have the three middle columns filled; the "stays with a person" column must name a role, never "the team".
Output format: one table, maximum 300 words, followed by a list of the tasks I gave you that do not fit any row. No introduction.
Rules:
- Do not invent tasks or names; where data is missing, write [PENDING] and tell me which question to ask.
- The first column is explicit permission, not a list of prohibitions; phrase it as what AI can prepare.
- Flag every assumption as an assumption.
- If critical information is missing, ask me at most 3 questions before answering.
- Answer in plain, direct business English, with no sales adjectives.
What to check in the answer:
Does the "stays with a person" column have a role in every row, or did it fall back to "the team reviews"?
Is the middle column filled, or did the map turn into "all or nothing"?
Is the fourth row really from your area, or generic? If generic, give it one concrete task and ask it to redo the row.
Vic Sol