AI assistance is most useful when boundaries are explicit. The question is not whether to automate. The question is what to automate.

Tasks Suitable For Delegation

These are usually safe to delegate with review:

  1. Boilerplate scaffolding.
  2. Refactoring with preserved semantics.
  3. Test harness generation from predefined criteria.
  4. Documentation formatting and structure.

Tasks That Must Stay Researcher-Owned

These decisions are methodological, not mechanical:

  1. Estimand definition.
  2. Identification assumptions.
  3. Inference interpretation.
  4. Tradeoffs between bias, variance, and robustness.

Delegating these without oversight risks scientific validity.

Governance Checkpoints

A lightweight governance model can include:

  1. Human sign-off for methodological changes.
  2. Mandatory artifact review for release gates.
  3. Audit logs linking prompts, code changes, and outcomes.

Governance should increase clarity, not bureaucracy.

Key Takeaway

Use AI for execution leverage, but keep scientific judgment under explicit human control.