Govern Before You Automate™: The Only Safe Way to Put AI in a Professional Workflow
Govern Before You Automate™:
The Only Safe Way to Put AI in a Professional Workflow
By Nikki Mehrpoo, JD, AIWC, AIMWC
Founder, The MedLegal Professor™ | Former Workers’ Compensation Judge | AI Governance Architect & Technology Strategist | Creator of The EEE AI Protocol™ | Dual-Certified Legal Specialist | Legal Risk & Compliance Strategist | AI+HI™ Champion for Regulated Professionals
If AI is in your workflow today—and it is—you are already on the clock.
Every AI-augmented decision you make without governance is an unlogged, undocumented, and potentially indefensible professional action. This is the new, non-negotiable reality for every licensed professional. You must establish control before you pursue speed.
This is not a theoretical warning for the future. This is the professional standard right now.
The Reality You Can’t Ignore
If AI is in your workflow today — and it is — you are already on the clock. Every AI-augmented decision you make without governance is an unlogged, undocumented, and potentially indefensible professional action.
AI isn’t waiting for you to catch up. It’s making decisions at machine speed. Without enforcement-grade oversight, you’re building a liability file you can’t control.
This brings us to the hard truth about what AI is already doing under your license.
The Hard Truth: AI Is Already Making Judgment Calls
Here’s what most professionals don’t realize:
That “simple” AI draft or recommendation is still a judgment-affecting output.
Every decision that affects a client, patient, or case is a professional act — and therefore, must be governed.
Without governance, you can’t prove what was done, why it was done, or who approved it.
The EEE AI Governance Protocol™ exists for exactly this reason — to put the human back in charge of the machine. This is the lifecycle through which we reassert professional authority.
@Lifecycle: Educate / Empower / Elevate
The EEE AI Governance Protocol™ – Three Words, One Lifeline
Educate. Empower. Elevate.
The EEE Protocol is not tech hype, a marketing checklist, or a “responsible AI” pledge. It is a legally defensible, lifecycle-enforceable governance system for professionals whose licenses, careers, and clients cannot be left to chance.
To implement this, you must adopt a new operational mandate in your practice.
@Trigger: Stop. Document. Govern.™
Why “Govern Before You Automate™” Is Non-Negotiable
Speed is not your ally without control.
In high-risk environments, AI’s advantages mean nothing if:
You can’t verify its output
You can’t prove you reviewed it
You can’t show an audit trail
The EEE Protocol requires governance before automation because:
Authority First – You establish who can deploy AI in each domain.
Trigger Mapping – You define when governance is required (any judgment-affecting decision).
Documentation Mandate – You log every AI-augmented decision.
HI Final Review – Human Intelligence signs off before execution.
The Courtroom Test™: Could you defend the logic chain of your last AI-assisted decision to a disciplinary board?
How would your current workflow hold up under cross-examination? Let us consider a real-world example.
@Risk: Audit Gap / AI Overreach / Human Bypass
A Real-World Example
A licensed claims adjuster uses AI to generate a settlement range.
Without governance:
No one knows the model’s data sources.
No record exists of the human review.
The client disputes the settlement in court — and you have no defensible file.
With the EEE Protocol:
The AI use is pre-approved in the claims domain.
Every AI output is logged in the governance record.
The human reviewer’s sign-off is documented.
You walk into court with a complete, defensible audit trail.
Without governance, you have a story. With governance, you have a record. That is the standard.
@Standard: HIPAA / ABA / CPRA / EU AI Act
This level of personal responsibility is now the baseline for peer governance. Here is how you can begin immediately.
@Audience: Attorneys, QMEs, HR Managers, Claims Adjusters, Physicians, C-Suite Leaders
The 5-Minute Action Plan to Start Governing AI Today
You don’t need a toolkit, a template, or a download to begin governing AI. You need to start behaving like a human who is professionally in charge — starting now.
Step 1: Identify One Real AI Use
Think of one moment today (or this week) when you used AI for work.
It could be a draft you accepted, a suggestion you used, or a response you sent after AI helped.
Say it out loud or write it down: 👉 “I used AI to _______ in my workflow.”
Step 2: Declare That You Own the Outcome
Literally say this to yourself or write it: 👉 “I, not the AI, am responsible for the outcome of this decision.”
This reclaims legal, ethical, and professional ownership over the action.
Step 3: Write Down What the AI Said
Grab a pen, a sticky note, or a blank email to yourself.
Write down the exact suggestion or output AI gave you, what you agreed with, and what you changed or accepted.
This is the beginning of your human-verifiable audit trail.
Step 4: Say Why You Let It Influence the Outcome
Answer this in one sentence: “Why did I think this AI output was good enough to use?”
Examples: “It aligned with my expertise and didn’t contradict the facts.” or “It gave language, but I made the judgment.”
Step 5: Name the Real-World Stakeholder Impacted
Now name the person or group this AI-influenced decision affected: a client, a patient, a case, a policy.
Say or write: 👉 “This decision affected a real person or outcome, and I am accountable for it.”
This five-minute exercise is not just documentation. It is a fundamental governance shift, moving you from a passive user to an active, accountable professional who is in control of the technology. You cannot “wait and see” with AI governance. By the time you realize you needed it, the record is already lost.
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