The right mental model
| Instead of thinking… | Think… |
|---|---|
| ”The AI will handle it." | "The AI prepares the work; the approved owner moves it." |
| "If it sounds confident, it is correct." | "If the source context supports it, it may be ready for review." |
| "AI is only for writing replies." | "AI can prioritize, compare, explain, draft, route, and preserve evidence." |
| "Operators should check everything manually." | "Operators should check the evidence that changes customer promises, margin, system state, or ownership.” |
What Ubik AI can help with
- Summarize long buyer, supplier, logistics, and internal threads into decision-ready context.
- Promote the work most likely to affect customer promises, margin, clearance, or ownership.
- Draft buyer replies, internal handoffs, approval requests, and supplier follow-ups.
- Compare a request against inventory, margin guardrails, account terms, and timing context.
- Explain why an item is blocked, who owns the next move, and what evidence is missing.
- Help managers see where work is waiting without asking every operator for a status update.
What operators must still do
Hand Ubik different shapes of work. Drafting, comparing, summarising, prioritising, explaining - variety is what builds your workflow corpus and grows memory across people, process, and technology. With more shape, the agent learns what normal looks like and surfaces deviations cleanly when you graduate it to autonomous.
Reviewer responsibilities
Reviewer responsibilities
Check source context, account, product, quantity, timing, owner, and margin-sensitive language before approval. Assign or escalate the item when another person owns the decision.
When to reject the recommendation
When to reject the recommendation
Reject when source data is stale, the recommendation cannot show evidence, internal notes leak into external copy, or the decision belongs to finance, logistics, management, or another accountable owner.
How to ask better questions
Good questions name the operating decision, not just the object.| Weak ask | Better ask |
|---|---|
| ”What is happening?" | "What changed in this buyer thread since yesterday, and what decision is now waiting?" |
| "Can we ship?" | "What would block a partial shipment for this buyer, and which promise dates would move?" |
| "Summarize this." | "Summarize the decision, owner, deadline, evidence, and missing context." |
| "Write reply." | "Draft a buyer reply that confirms the next step without exposing internal margin or supplier notes.” |
When not to approve
Approve
The answer has current source context, the owner is clear, sensitive details are controlled, and the action is within your authority.
Escalate
The work affects price, margin, shipment timing, compliance, ERP records, or a customer promise outside your approval scope.