Decision Tool
Automation Risk Checklist
A checklist to identify what could go wrong quietly—before you automate something that creates hidden failure.
What this helps you decide
- Surface silent failure risks before they become customer-facing.
- Clarify accountability: who notices, who owns, who can override.
- Decide where automation should stop and humans must remain.
When to use it
- You’re automating intake, follow‑ups, routing, or reporting.
- Failure would not be obvious immediately (quiet drift).
- You operate in a compliance-sensitive or reputation-sensitive environment.
The framework
Operational risk
- If this fails silently, who notices—and how quickly?
- What is the manual fallback if automation stops today?
- What’s the maximum acceptable delay before a human intervenes?
Data risk
- What data is required, and what happens if it’s missing or wrong?
- What assumptions does the automation make about field formats and completeness?
- How do you audit inputs/outputs without digging through logs for hours?
Reputational risk
- Could the automation send the wrong message to the wrong person?
- Could it look careless or disrespectful in a relationship-based context?
- What is the ‘worst plausible’ customer experience this could create?
Compliance / accountability risk
- Who is accountable for decisions and communications?
- Is there a clear override point before an irreversible action happens?
- Can you explain and justify outputs if challenged?
Human trust erosion
- Will this make the team trust the system more—or distrust it quietly?
- Will it reduce mental load, or add ‘babysitting’ work?
- What happens when it’s wrong—do people have a safe way to correct it?
Common mistakes
Common mistakes
- Only testing “happy paths” and ignoring edge cases.
- Shipping automation without a defined owner and escalation path.
- Treating monitoring as optional (it isn’t).
What this does NOT answer
- Whether you should automate a judgment-heavy or moral decision (you shouldn’t).
- Which tool is best; this is about failure modes, not features.
Optional next step
This checklist is part of our audit process. If you want a calm, scoped risk review of a specific workflow, request an audit.