Column: Silicon systems design
inferred explanation and a speculative recommendation. Critical actions should require approval. Modifying formal assumptions, accepting a waiver, changing verification intent or closing an issue can’t become routine automated steps. Results must also be reproducible.
A conclusion that can’t be recreated from controlled inputs should not become sign-off evidence. The agent may assemble evidence and highlight risks, but a qualified engineer or review team decides whether that evidence is sufficient.
Agentic AI can create an illusion of progress Agentic AI can perform more verification activity – it can also create the illusion of
Human oversight should not be added as a final approval box; it must be designed into the workflow
progress. An agent may generate many tests, assertions, coverage targets and reports, yet weak assertions can pass while proving little. Generated tests can
Figure 2: Human oversight checkpoints in a controlled verification-agent workflow
duplicate existing behaviour. Coverage can rise because easy conditions were added to the model. Automated summaries can conceal uncertainty. This is automated verification theatre:
visible motion without a corresponding reduction in functional risk. Teams should measure outcomes
rather than activity, including generated- property accuracy, review effort, false classifications, time to confirmed root cause, requirements-to-evidence traceability and defects found earlier. Finding one architectural bug may be
more valuable than producing thousands of passing tests.
Towards controlled verification autonomy Agentic AI can connect activities
14 September 2026
www.electronicsworld.co.uk
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