---
id: KB-CL-007
url: https://app.codecontract.io/help/collaboration/how-far-to-delegate-to-an-agent
idioma: en
categoria: colaboracion
subcategoria: automatico
audiencia: usuario
nivel: avanzado
actualizado: 2026-08-13
tambienEn: [es]
relacionados: [KB-CL-006, KB-CL-004]
citadoPor: [KB-MA-013]
---

# How far to delegate to an agent

_The line between saving work and shifting a risk that stays yours._

**Responde a:** can i let ai approve documents · how far to automate with agents · who is responsible if the agent gets it wrong · supervising an ai agent

An agent can do almost anything a person with a browser can. The useful question is not what it can do but what it should — and the answer turns on one thing: who answers if it goes wrong.

## The line

| Kind of task | Delegate? | Why |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Log into a portal and download a document | Yes | Mechanical and verifiable: either it brings the document or not |
| Fill in and submit a familiar form | Yes, reviewing at first | The result can be checked |
| Check whether a certificate meets a criterion | Have it propose | It is a judgement, however mechanical it looks |
| Approve a supplier | No | It has consequences and you answer for them |
| Decide to block someone | No | It affects a third party who did not choose this |

> [!IMPORTANT]
> If an agent approves a supplier who did not comply and that ends at an inspection, the answer "the system approved it" does not exist. You answer exactly as if someone on your team had approved it, because you were the ones who let it decide.

## How to release it, in practice

1. **Everything reviewed** — For the first weeks, a person confirms every result. That is where you see whether it is right and where it fails.
2. **Release the mechanical** — Downloading, uploading, filling in the usual. If it fails, you notice quickly.
3. **What judges stays proposing** — Permanently, not as a temporary phase.

> [!WARNING]
> Watch the point where the log stops being read. An agent running well for six months is exactly when nobody checks, and also when a change in the target portal can go unnoticed for weeks.

## What delegating does not change

**En corto**

- Responsibility for what is approved stays yours.
- Duties towards third parties are not delegated with the task.
- What the agent did is recorded in your name.

> [!NOTE]
> The healthy way to see it: an agent is someone new on the team being taught a task. You would not hand over every key on day one, and you would not let them sign decisions you answer for.

**Can I undo what it did?**

It depends on the action. What was submitted on an external portal, usually not.

**What if the portal asks it something it does not know?**

It stops and reports. It does not improvise.

**Is it worth it for few tasks?**

Rarely. It pays off on the repetitive, where time accumulates.

## Ejemplos

**A company lets an agent approve supplier clearances to move faster.**

- Reverses it: the agent proposes and a person confirms
- Releases only fetching and submitting

→ Keeps the genuine time saving and returns the decision to whoever answers for it.

**Full supplier onboarding is delegated to an agent and a week later files are approved unreviewed.**

- Delegates first what touches nobody outside
- Keeps approval behind human confirmation
- Widens only after reviewing what it did in the first week

→ Delegation grows on verified behaviour rather than on an expectation.

**The agent decides something that required business judgement.**

- Keeps those decisions out of its scope

→ Responsibility stays where it should.

**It is delegated and nobody ever reviews what it does.**

- Reviews a sample periodically

→ Trust rests on checks.

**The agent acts out of hours and nobody expects it.**

- Configures when it may act

→ Its actions happen when somebody is around.

**Its scope is widened without telling the team.**

- Communicates scope changes

→ Nobody is surprised by what they no longer do by hand.

**The agent and a person do the same thing at once.**

- Splits who does what

→ The supplier does not receive two requests.

**The agent is switched off and the work piles up unowned.**

- Assigns somebody what it was doing

→ Switching off leaves no gap.