Direct answer: AI can often assist with reading, extracting, classifying, comparing, searching, drafting, summarising and flagging potential inconsistencies. Human control should remain explicit wherever a workflow creates a consequential commercial, professional, legal, payment, approval or safety outcome.
Preparation and decision are different roles
A system may be excellent at finding every notice clause in a contract and still be the wrong entity to decide whether a notice should be issued. It may reconcile a payment claim against records without having authority to certify or release money.
| Task | AI role | Human role | Record required |
|---|---|---|---|
| Contract review | Extract clauses, compare terms | Interpret legal and commercial effect | Sources, issues, reviewer decision |
| Scope comparison | Cross-check documents | Resolve allocation | Issue register and clarification |
| Payment claim | Assemble evidence | Assess, certify or approve | Assessment basis and approval |
| Correspondence | Draft from sources | Own message and commitment | Approved final communication |
| Safety-critical action | Retrieve procedures | Competent person decides | Required safety record |
Where human control should stay strong
Commercial commitments, certification, professional judgement, legal interpretation, negotiation, signing, external approvals, payments, safety-critical decisions and contractual submissions can have consequences beyond the quality of the text.
The boundary depends on risk and jurisdiction
A low-risk internal summary is different from a payment certificate. A draft RFI is different from an engineering sign-off. Workflows should be classified by consequence, regulatory setting, contractual requirements, data sensitivity and required competence.
Meaningful oversight requires more than a button
A reviewer needs relevant source documents, uncertainty, exceptions and an easy way to reject or amend the output. Oversight is meaningful when the person can understand the basis and has enough authority to intervene.
TEMRIK's construction AI playbooks and AI-assisted contract review are useful examples of workflows where preparation and approval can be separated.
External sources support the specific propositions attributed to them. Workflow examples are practical editorial examples, not statistics.