Every AI workflow has a seam between what the model does and what the human does. The position of that seam is the most consequential design decision in the product, and it is the one most teams do not deliberately make. They inherit a seam from how the model happens to work, and pay for it in trust, accuracy, and adoption.
Three common seam positions
Suggest: the model proposes, the human decides. Highest trust, lowest leverage. Good for novel or high-stakes tasks. Draft: the model executes, the human reviews and edits. Medium trust, medium leverage. Good for repeatable creative tasks. Act: the model does, the human is notified after. Lowest trust to earn, highest leverage. Good only for narrow, reversible, audited tasks.
The trust contract
Users will let the seam shift toward act only after they have watched the model perform reliably at suggest and draft. Move the seam in this order, with this earned trust, or your AI features get turned off by the people you most need to adopt them. Trust is not granted; it is observed.
How to design the seam visibly
Show the user what stage they are at. Make the action the model is about to take explicit and reversible. Provide an obvious off switch that does not bury them in settings. The seam should feel like a choice, not a default.