Agentic Surfaces
Surfaces
T4

Trust Calibration

4.1
Interaction design

Showing confidence and uncertainty

The system's own certainty about a determination is shown to the user in bands, each one paired with what happens next at that level.

Housing assistance: you appear eligible to apply

Low confidence0 of 3 confirmed

An officer will review this before any decision takes effect.

Low confidence. 0 of 3 confirmed. An officer will review this before any decision takes effect.

Checks still needed from you
You have lived in the City continuously since 2023
Inferred from one tenancy record. Your address may have changed since City Assistant last saw it.
Your household income is under the threshold
Estimated from your last declaration, not confirmed against current income records.
An approved support assessment is on file for you
Assumed from a caseworker’s note, not yet matched to this application.
4.2
Interaction design

Trust marks and certification

A certification claim is shown as a mark that links to the evidence behind it, rather than as a free-standing badge.

Energy rebate assessments
City Digital Services · automated with human review
Certified · CERT-2026-031

Every claim below links to the record behind it. Tap a claim to see its evidence.

Certification recordCERT-2026-031 · issued 9 Mar 2026 · expires Mar 2027
Audit evidenceIndependent audit, Feb 2026: reviewer sign-off present on 100% of sampled adverse determinations (n = 240)
Live metricMedian human review time: 9 minutes. No decisions released without sign-off this quarter.

A claim with no record behind it cannot be shown here. The mark renders from the certification register, so a lapsed audit removes the claim rather than leaving a free-standing badge.
4.3
Interaction design

Graduated delegation

The risk of a service action sets the delegation level offered, and that level defaults to the most conservative option.

Preview the ladder for a different action
Check a payment dateLow consequence

At any level: “stop and hand back to me” takes one tap and applies immediately. This cap is fixed by the service. Your assistant cannot raise it on its own. Only low-consequence actions reach the delegated rung.

Moving up a rung is always the user’s explicit act. The system may suggest it after demonstrated use; it may never perform it.
4.4
Interaction design

Transparency by default

A standing transparency record is paired with disclosures that appear at the decision points where they can change what the user does.

You’re working with an AI assistant. It helps prepare your energy rebate claim; a human officer decides it. How it works is on record below.

Transparency record · TR-0027

The assistant reads your answers and your household records (with your permission), fills in the claim, and estimates your rebate from the published rate tables. It cannot approve or refuse anything. Officers review every claim it prepares; the assistant’s error and override rates are published quarterly.

Before you submit
I’m about to submit this claim on your behalf

Once submitted, it enters assessment and can’t be recalled. Corrections after this point go through an amendment. Your claim states a household of 3 and income from two employers.

Disclosures appear only at decision points and irreversible actions. Raise one at every step and users learn to dismiss it.

The record stays in place, so it can be checked or cited later. A service that publishes only the record hides the moment that mattered; one that shows only moments leaves nothing on record to contest later.
4.5
Interaction design

Communicating the level of automation

How much of this action was automated is stated as one of three plain labels, shown before the user consents to it.

Preview the same interaction at each automation label
Recalculate your rebate for the new quarterAI-assisted
What this label meansThe AI helps you prepare; every substantive step is yours
Where a person sitsA person makes the decision, with your prepared material in front of them
What the agent will doRead the new quarter’s rate table, recalculate your rebate, and lodge the updated amount
Data it will accessYour current claim · household record · this quarter’s rate table. No other data is accessed.

The label is set by what the system does, checked against the oversight records. A service cannot claim ‘AI-recommended’ while its reviewers approve at a rate no different from ‘AI-decided.’
4.6
Interaction design

Signaling human-in-the-loop oversight

Accountable human review is signaled before, during, and after the decision, naming the role that carried it out.

Preview each stage of the decision
Assessment officer, Rebates team

Your claim will be reviewed by an assessment officer before any outcome takes effect. The assistant prepares; it does not decide.

Behind this signal: 14 officers reviewed claims this quarter

Both buttons take one step. An override placed behind menus signals that oversight is unwelcome.

The sequence claims oversight three times, and each claim comes with a published number: the officer’s name, the time spent, and the correction rate. That turns a fake review into a stated falsehood.
4.7
Interaction design

Earned trust and reversible delegation

The delegation widens as the agent earns trust and contracts the moment the user asks, with leaving no harder than joining.

Preview the delegation before and after withdrawal
City Assistant · your delegation
Active since March · 12 actions completed, 12 confirmed by you
Active
What it can do now
Check payment dates and status
Granted at setup
Update your contact details, with confirmation
Granted at setup
Lodge quarterly rebate renewals for your review
Expanded in May. Offered after 8 successful uses, accepted by you.
Offered: submit meter readings without confirming each one

Available after 12 confirmed actions. Nothing changes unless you accept.

Takes effect right away. Nothing pending will complete, and nothing about your services changes.

Withdrawal is penalty-free by design: the non-agent channel runs at equal service quality, so the person fleeing a misbehaving agent is not the person the exit punishes.
4.8
Interaction design

Declared automation on outbound decisions

Each decision carries its own declaration of what was automated and whether an officer reviewed it, rather than pointing at the policy behind it.

Preview the declaration at a different automation level
City Digital Services12 Jun

Rebate assessment

DN-2026-1187
Outcome

Your rebate for this quarter is $118.40.

How this decision was madeFully automated

This assessment was produced automatically. No officer reviewed it before it was sent.

The declaration line renders identically on every channel the decision travels — letter, phone script, and portal. It states only how far automation acted; the reasons for the decision and the path to contest it are separate duties the declaration feeds.