Use cases
AI Assistant With Approval Before Every Send
An AI assistant with approval before sending pauses on any action that leaves a mark — an email, a tool write, a payment — and waits for a human to sign off first. Arlo puts this gate on every send and write by default, resolves each tool connection through policy before a run, and logs every approval in an audit trail.
The moment an AI assistant can actually do things — send the email, update the record, place the order — the question stops being "is it smart enough?" and becomes "what happens when it's wrong?" An assistant that acts without a checkpoint is a liability waiting to send the wrong message to the wrong person. Arlo is built the other way around: nothing that leaves a mark goes out until you approve it.
Arlo is an AI colleague with an approval gate on every send and write by default. It drafts, decides, and prepares the action — then stops and asks. You stay the reviewer on anything that touches the outside world, so the assistant moves fast without moving past you.
What "approval before sending" covers
The gate isn't just for email. It sits in front of anything that commits you:
- Sends — an email, a Slack message, a text, a reply on your behalf.
- Writes — updating a CRM record, editing a Notion page, opening or closing an issue.
- Bookings and spend — scheduling something external, or any action that costs money.
- Calls that commit — when Arlo is on the phone, agreeing to a booking or a charge waits for your sign-off too.
Read-only work — research, summaries, drafts you haven't asked it to send — flows without interruption. The friction lands only where the risk is.
Why teams need the human in the loop
"Human in the loop" gets said a lot; most tools mean an off switch buried in settings. For a team, approvals have to be the default and they have to be visible:
- A wrong send is expensive. One bad reply to a customer or a prospect can't be unsent. A gate is cheaper than an apology.
- Trust is what lets you delegate. People hand off more work to an assistant they know can't act behind their back — so the gate makes the assistant more useful, not less.
- Governance is becoming table stakes. As rules like the EU AI Act phase in through 2026, "a human reviewed it" stops being a nice-to-have and starts being something you need to show.
How Arlo's approvals work
Governance isn't a mode you switch on later — it's how a run is shaped from the start:
- Policy first. Before a run begins, every tool connection resolves through policy — what Arlo may touch, and how far it can go.
- Act up to the line. Arlo does the reasoning, the drafting, and the read-only steps on its own.
- Pause at the gate. Anything that sends, writes, or spends stops and surfaces for the reviewer you chose.
- Log it. The approval, who gave it, and the action it released all land in an audit trail.
| Ungoverned AI assistant | Arlo | |
|---|---|---|
| Sends and writes by default | Acts on its own | Waits for approval |
| Who reviews risky actions | No one | A reviewer you choose |
| Read-only work | Flows | Flows |
| Record of what was approved | None | Full audit trail |
| Policy on what tools it can touch | Rare | Resolved before every run |
Fast and safe aren't opposites
The worry is always that a gate slows everything down. It doesn't, because most of what an assistant does is read-only, and the gate only appears at the point of commitment — usually one tap to release something Arlo already prepared. You get the speed of delegation and the safety of review, in the channels you already use.
Frequently asked questions
What does "approval before sending" mean? It means the assistant prepares an action but doesn't complete it until a human approves. With Arlo, every send, write, booking, or payment waits for a reviewer you choose; read-only work flows without interruption.
Does approval on everything make it slow? No. Most of an assistant's work is research and drafting, which never hits the gate. The gate appears only at the moment something would commit, and clearing it is usually a single tap.
Can I choose who approves? Yes. You set the reviewer, so the right person signs off before anything goes out.
Is there a record of what got approved? Yes. Every approval — who gave it and what it released — is stored in a full audit trail tied back to the original request.
Why does this matter for compliance? Regulations increasingly expect a human check on consequential automated actions. An approval gate plus an audit trail is how you demonstrate one was in place.
Getting started
Give an assistant real reach without giving up the last word. Try Arlo and see how much you'll hand off once you know nothing goes out without you.
Last updated July 4, 2026