When should an AI product ask users to confirm?
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One thing I find tricky when designing AI products is deciding when the product should just act and when it should ask the user first.
Asking for confirmation feels safer, especially when AI is making decisions or changing something for the user.
But if every action needs confirmation, the experience quickly becomes annoying. At some point, the user is basically supervising the AI instead of benefiting from it.
I don’t think the answer is simply “confirm important actions,” because what counts as important can depend on the user, the context, and whether the action can be reversed.
For people building AI products, how do you decide when AI should act on its own and when it should stop and ask the user?
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I’d use consequence, reversibility, and confidence. If it sends something to another person, deletes data, spends money, changes access, or the model is unsure, ask. For low-risk actions that are easy to undo, act and show exactly what happened with an undo. Over time, the product can earn more autonomy per workflow based on how often the user reverses or overrides it.