Human-in-the-loop

Human-in-the-loop means the AI produces and a person disposes. The assistant drafts the customer reply; a staff member reads it, fixes anything off, and hits send. The extraction system pulls the invoice data; a bookkeeper glances at the flagged ones before they post. The loop catches errors before they reach anyone who matters.

Where to put the human is a judgment call about stakes and confidence. Low-stakes, high-volume, easily-reversed tasks can run fully automatic. Anything customer-facing, financial, or regulated usually starts with a human approving every output, then relaxes as trust builds: review everything, then review samples, then review only what the system flags as uncertain. Earned autonomy, not assumed autonomy.

Practical example: the email-drafting assistant that saves a team ten hours a week typically still has a human approving each send in month one. By month three, routine confirmations go out automatically and only the unusual ones queue for review. The loop didn't disappear; it narrowed to where it pays.