AI agent glossary
Human-in-the-loop
Designing an agent so a person reviews, approves, or corrects its work at chosen points instead of letting it act entirely on its own.
Human-in-the-loop design places people at the moments where their judgment matters most. That might be approving a plan before work begins, confirming a risky action like sending an email or deleting data, or reviewing the final result before it ships.
The goal is not to approve everything. Too many prompts lead to approval fatigue, where people click yes without reading. Good designs let the agent move freely on safe, reversible actions and pause only on the ones that are costly, public, or irreversible.
Make each checkpoint easy to act on. Show the person exactly what will happen, why, and what the alternatives are, so a quick review is also a meaningful one.
A support agent drafts refunds automatically but pauses for a human to approve any refund over a set amount before it is issued.
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