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Responsible AI checklist

Copy the AI workflow rollback checklist before the pilot expands

The pilot worked once. The queue looked clean. Then someone asks whether the workflow can update the CRM without the same review step.

Open this checklist before the answer becomes yes. Name the workflow, its highest allowed v1 action, the receipt fields, the rollback owner, the manual fallback, and the criteria for earning more permission.

Step 1

proposed action

Step 2

approval evidence

Step 3

receipt fields

Step 4

rollback path

Permission gate

Expansion depends on written criteria, not on a clean demo or a small successful sample.

A four-step flow showing proposed action, approval evidence, receipt fields, and rollback path before permission expands.

Copyable artifact

AI workflow rollback checklist

Fill this for one workflow before raising its authority. The point is to make the undo path visible while the workflow is still small enough to change.

Stop line

If any rollback field is blank, do not expand permission yet. Keep the workflow draft-only, reviewed, or manual.

Workflow identity

  • Workflow________________
  • Business owner________________
  • Technical owner________________
  • Reviewer________________
  • System touched________________
  • Action proposed________________
  • Highest allowed action in v1: draft / reviewed action / limited automatic action / manual only________________

Before approval

The reviewer should see the source, rule, preview, risk reason, and stop cases before the workflow touches a customer, record, public page, or sensitive system.

  • Source evidence shown________________
  • Policy rule shown________________
  • Before/after preview shown________________
  • Risk reason shown________________
  • Known cases where action must stop________________

Receipt

The run should be reconstructable after the decision: what started it, what source was used, who decided, what happened, and which version produced it.

  • Run ID________________
  • Source IDs / excerpts________________
  • Reviewer decision________________
  • Final action________________
  • System touched________________
  • Final state________________
  • Version / prompt / model / tool identifier________________

Rollback

Permission should not expand while ownership, manual fallback, correction path, audit sample, or expansion criteria are still blank.

  • Rollback path________________
  • Rollback owner________________
  • Customer or stakeholder notification condition________________
  • Correction SLA or review window________________
  • Manual fallback________________
  • Next audit sample________________
  • Permission expansion criteria________________

Plain-text version to copy into a planning doc

AI workflow rollback checklist

Workflow:
Business owner:
Technical owner:
Reviewer:
System touched:
Action proposed:
Highest allowed action in v1: draft / reviewed action / limited automatic action / manual only

Before approval:
Source evidence shown:
Policy rule shown:
Before/after preview shown:
Risk reason shown:
Known cases where action must stop:

Receipt:
Run ID:
Source IDs / excerpts:
Reviewer decision:
Final action:
System touched:
Final state:
Version / prompt / model / tool identifier:

Rollback:
Rollback path:
Rollback owner:
Customer or stakeholder notification condition:
Correction SLA or review window:
Manual fallback:
Next audit sample:
Permission expansion criteria:

Field guidance

How to use the fields without turning this into policy theater

Each field should help a reviewer decide whether one workflow is ready for more authority. If a field cannot be completed from real evidence, keep the workflow in the reviewed lane.

Highest allowed action in v1

Write the ceiling, not the hope. If the first version is draft-only or reviewed action, keep it there until the permission expansion criteria are met.

Before/after preview shown

The reviewer needs to see what will change before approving. For a CRM note, that means the target record and proposed text. For a page update, that means the diff.

Run ID and source IDs

Use the same vocabulary as the receipt: stable IDs, source excerpts, reviewer decision, final action, final state, and workflow version.

Rollback owner

Name the person or role who can correct the record, send the clarification, revert the page, restore the tag, or reduce workflow permission after a miss.

Manual fallback

Describe how the work continues if the workflow is paused. The fallback should be specific enough that the team can keep serving customers without granting more AI permission.

Permission expansion criteria

Do not use a clean demo as the gate. State the evidence, sample, receipt quality, reviewer confidence, and stop conditions needed before the workflow moves beyond v1.

Permission expansion gate

The last field is the decision

Permission expansion criteria should be written before the workflow gets more access. Do not treat the field as a note the team fills after the system already has write permission.

If the team cannot name the rollback owner and manual fallback, keep the workflow draft-only or reviewed. The cleanest path is to finish one checklist, run the next sample under review, and use the receipt to prove what happened.

Related artifacts

The checklist works best when it sits beside the approval policy, review queue, receipt template, security boundary, and wrong-change rollback guide.

Wrong-change rollback planning

Use this upstream guide to answer the buyer objection: what happens when the AI workflow updates the wrong record, sends the wrong reply, or changes the wrong page?

Map the wrong-change path

Agent receipt template

Use the receipt template to fill the Run ID, source IDs, reviewer decision, final action, final state, and version fields without vague notes.

Review the receipt template

Approval queue guide

Use the approval queue guide to decide which evidence, policy rule, risk reason, and reviewer decision belong in the before-approval section.

Compare approval states

Approval policy worksheet

Write allowed, review-required, and never-allowed actions before the rollback checklist becomes a production permission decision.

Copy the approval policy

AI workflow controls guide

Place the rollback checklist inside the larger boundary, approval, receipt, eval, observability, and escalation control map.

Open the controls guide

Security review worksheet

Run the data and access review before the workflow receives source access, production credentials, write permission, or vendor/model exposure.

Map the security boundary

FAQ

Rollback checklist questions

When should we use the AI workflow rollback checklist?

Use it after one workflow has worked in a pilot or shadow run and before the team expands from draft-only or reviewed action into broader permission. The checklist is for one named workflow, not a companywide AI policy.

What happens if a rollback field is blank?

Keep the workflow draft-only, reviewed, or manual until the team can name the rollback path, rollback owner, manual fallback, receipt fields, and permission expansion criteria.

Is this a compliance template?

No. This is an implementation planning resource, not legal, privacy, security, or compliance advice. Regulated workflows should involve the client's legal, compliance, privacy, security, or operational stakeholders before production use.

How does this connect to an agent receipt?

The receipt proves what happened in one run. The rollback checklist asks whether the workflow has enough receipt fields, ownership, manual fallback, and stop criteria before permission expands.

BaristaLabs next step

Pressure-test one rollback path

Bring one workflow, one proposed action, and the systems it might touch. We can review the owner, fallback, receipt, and permission criteria before the workflow expands.

Pressure-test one rollback path