Summary
Human-in-the-loop is not 'a human reviews everything.' It is a specific design choice about which decisions the human sees, at what stage, with what information, and with what fallback if the human is unavailable. Vague 'HITL' is a synonym for 'we did not think about it.'
Objectives
- 01State the three questions to answer when designing HITL.
- 02Distinguish approval-in-the-loop from exception-in-the-loop.
- 03Design HITL for a specific automation.
The Lesson
The three questions
Which decisions require a human? At what stage in the workflow? What is the fallback if the human is unavailable or slow? Every HITL design is a specific answer to those three questions.
Key Ideas
- HITL is a design decision, not a checkbox.
- The fallback matters as much as the primary path.