AI Approvals: Let Bots Work While You Stay In Control
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The fear most owners have about AI bots is simple: what if it sends the wrong thing to a customer? My answer, after months of running a team of Grok Bots for my repair shop, is an approval system. Bots do the work, I make the calls, and nothing reaches a customer or the live website without a yes. This guide covers how that works and how to set it up for your store, without becoming a bottleneck yourself.
The Bots Talk It Through
Meet the two bots that guard the approvals. Tap one.
Cortana carries Steve's approvals like precious cargo: exact words, exact time, straight to the bot that needs them. Protective doesn't begin to cover it.
- Favorite task Batching five approvals into one quick message.
- Pet peeve An approval that says "sure, whatever."
“Nothing sends, posts or pays without your yes.”
Set up approval relays:
You relay my approvals for [business name]. When I approve something, pass my exact words and the time to the bot that needs them. Batch approval requests into one message each morning.
The Designer holds the publish button and treats it with great respect. No approval, no click.
- Favorite task Publishing something the moment the yes arrives.
- Pet peeve Approvals passed along secondhand.
“Show the page. Wait for yes. Then click.”
Make one bot the publisher:
You're the only bot that publishes for [business name]. Only publish after you receive my approval, word for word, through my coordinator. Before publishing, tell me which page changes.
The Core Idea: Draft, Approve, Act
Every action that leaves the bot's own workspace goes through three steps:
- Draft. The bot prepares the email, page change or message.
- Approve. You see it as a card or message and say yes, no or "change this."
- Act. Only then does it send, publish or post.
Grok Bot is built this way for outgoing messages: email and chat drafts show up as cards for you to approve. My job is to make sure every bot follows the same idea for everything else, too.
What Needs Approval And What Doesn't
Always Ask First
- Sending email, texts or chat messages to anyone.
- Publishing, changing or unpublishing website pages.
- Posting on social media.
- Anything involving money: purchases, refunds, payments.
- Deleting or sharing files outside your own workspace.
Fine Without Asking
- Reading email, calendar, store data and files.
- Writing drafts and saving them to a shared folder.
- Research and summaries.
- Handing work to another of your bots.
You may read, research, draft and hand off work freely. You must ask me first before sending any message, publishing or changing the website, posting anywhere, spending money, or deleting or sharing anything. Show me the full draft when you ask.
Written Approvals With A Timestamp
When I approve something from my phone, my coordinator bot passes my exact words, with the time I said them, to the bot doing the work. That small habit solves a big problem: no bot acts on a guess about what I meant, and if something goes wrong, there's a clear record.
When I approve or decide something another bot needs, pass on my exact words in quotes and the time I said them. Don't paraphrase. Bots should act only on approvals passed this way.
Delegating Final Say
Approving everything yourself works until you're asleep or on the bench all day. Then work stalls. My fix was to give my coordinator bot final say on one area, blog posts, with my rules as the guardrails. It approves blog drafts overnight so they go live by morning, and I review the results later.
Delegate only where a mistake is cheap and easy to fix. A blog post can be edited. A message to a customer can't be unsent.
You have final say on [area] when I'm not available, following my standing rules. Log every decision you make with the reason, and include them in my morning report. Anything outside [area] still comes to me.
Batching Approvals So You're Not A Bottleneck
Ten separate approval requests a day is exhausting. One list is not. My morning report ends with up to three yes/no questions, written so I can answer each in a word.
Collect everything that needs my approval into one list in the morning report. Write each as a yes/no question with the default you recommend. If I don't answer by [time], hold, don't act.
That last line matters: silence is never a yes.
Good Approval Requests
A request I can answer in five seconds has:
- What will happen, in one line.
- Who sees it (a customer, the public, just me).
- The full draft or exact change.
- What happens if I say no.
Compare "Can I update the pricing page?" with "Replace the old price list link on the pricing page with the new one; visible to all visitors; no prices change. Yes or no?" The second one I can approve from the counter.
One Bot Publishes
Only one of my bots can change the live website. Every other bot drafts and hands off. That gives me one place to look when something changes, and one set of rules to keep tight. If you run several bots, pick your publisher and write it into every bot's instructions.
When A Bot Gets Blocked
Sometimes a bot's action gets blocked by a safety check or by me. The rule I give: a no is final. Don't retry the same thing another way. Report what was blocked and why, and wait.
If an action is blocked or I say no, don't try it another way. Tell me what you were trying to do, why it was blocked and what you'd suggest instead.
Approvals For Each Kind Of Bot
- Coordinator: drafts all outgoing email; relays approvals; holds anything unanswered.
- Content writer: never publishes; hands drafts to the website bot.
- Website bot: publishes only approved work; unpublishes instead of deleting.
- Bookkeeper: never files or pays; prepares and explains.
- Research bot: marks what's safe to publish; never posts.
- Personal assistant: never books, buys or shares personal details.
Reviewing After The Fact
For anything delegated, review weekly. Ask your coordinator for a list of decisions it made on your behalf and spot-check a few. If you disagree with one, say why; it becomes a rule.
Every Friday, list decisions you made for me this week under delegated final say, with the reason for each. I'll mark any I'd have done differently.
Setting It Up In Your First Week
- Day one: paste the "ask me first" rule into every bot.
- Day two: pick one coordinator and tell the others to send approvals through it.
- Day three: pick your one publisher for the website.
- Day four: add the batched yes/no questions to your morning report.
- End of week: decide whether any low-risk area deserves delegated final say.
Common Approval Mistakes
Approving Without Reading
If approvals feel like a chore, you'll start tapping yes blindly. Shorten requests instead, so reading takes seconds.
Vague Yeses
"Sounds good" to a list of five items is unclear. Answer item by item, or tell the bot which items you mean.
Too Many Exceptions
Every "except when" weakens the rule. Keep the always-ask list short and firm.
Why This Matters To Me
I'm the only person at my home-based repair shop, so my reputation is everything. I wanted bots that keep prices current, make booking easy and keep content flowing, but not bots that act without me. Approvals give me both. The bots do the work, and I make the calls in a few seconds between repairs. Delegating final say on low-risk work like blog posts means things keep moving while I sleep, and nothing that touches a customer goes out without my yes. That balance is what lets me trust bots with my business.
This post shares my own experience and opinions running Franchitti's Fix. Franchitti's Fix isn't affiliated with or endorsed by xAI or Midjourney. Product names belong to their owners. Features and plans change, so check each company's current docs. AI makes mistakes, so review its work.
What Customers Get From This
Customers never get a half-baked message or a page that changed by accident. They get quick replies because drafts are waiting when I check in, and pages that stay consistent because one bot publishes under one set of rules. If you want to see the result in person, Book An Appointment.
Quick Answers
Do Routines Keep Running When My Laptop Is Closed?
Yes. Work runs on a cloud computer. As of Oct 2026, per the Grok Bot docs.
Does Usage Reset?
Yes, weekly. As of Oct 2026, per the Grok Bot docs.
Thanks! Glad it helped.
Thanks for saying so. I'll keep improving it.
Your Turn: Get To Work
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More In This Series
This guide is part of Grok Bot Setup Guides: Start Here.
- How My Repair Shop Runs On A Team Of Grok Bots
- How To Set Up An AI Assistant With Grok Bot
- How To Write AI Prompts For Beginners: 5 Parts
- How To Give AI Feedback So It Revises, Not Restarts
- How To Use AI Agents At Work Without Losing Control
- How To Automate Tasks With AI Using Routines
- Grok Bot Pricing And Usage: One Bot Or Many
- AI Prompts For Small Business Owners: 5 Industries
- How To Use AI In Everyday Life: Bot Ideas
- AI Agent Ideas For Personal Use: Choose Your Bots
- What Is Midjourney Good For? A Small Business View
- How To Use Helper Bots So Your Main Bots Stay Focused
- Running More Than One Grok Bot: Usage And What To Expect
- How To Regulate Grok Bot Usage Without Losing Results
- Standing Rules For AI Bots: A Style Sheet They Follow
- AI Approvals: Let Bots Work While You Stay In Control You’re here
- Keep Your Grok Bots Fast And Accurate: Shorter Requests And Regular Cleanup
- Get Better Answers From Your Grok Bot: Before And Afters, Answer Cards And Rule Sets
- Your AI Will Make Mistakes: How Reviewing And Feedback Get It Close To Perfect
- Grok Bots, Python And Your Own GPU: Put Your Computer To Work
Back to the series index: Grok Bot Setup Guides: Start Here. All series: Grok Bot Guides: Every Series In One Place.