Each of those steps require a feeling for what is right, wrong, appropriate, inappropriate, and culturally acceptable. MakeAccountingSoftware() is a little more involved than GraphPlan().
I'd argue you need sentience for any meaningful right and wrong. There are a few universal rights we can't even agree on as a society, so having Evil Corp Government Agglomerated strictly defining right and wrong is, well, wrong.
The downside is a perversion of sentient AI could end up with Evil Sentient Sharia AI that shoots non-burka wearing females or an Evil Sentient Hasidic AI that shoots any non-beard-n-curls-n-hat wearing dudes or Evil Sentient Spaghetti Monster AI who force feeds carbs to everybody not wearing a strainer on their heads.
In short: determining what is right and wrong requires sentience. Just following what you are told is right and wrong does not.