# Human in the loop

Concept · [Building with AI](https://ecosystem.samcarlton.com/ai)

Also called: humans in the loop, HITL, human oversight, human approval

Designing an AI process so a person reviews, approves or corrects the AI's work at key steps instead of letting it act alone.

**For example:** An AI drafts replies to customer complaints, but a staff member reads and approves each one before it is sent.

## Connects to (12)

- [AI agent](https://ecosystem.samcarlton.com/ai-agent): An AI tool that does more than answer a question.
- [Guardrails](https://ecosystem.samcarlton.com/guardrails): Checks and limits built around a model inside a product.
- [Agent loop](https://ecosystem.samcarlton.com/agent-loop): The repeating cycle that makes an AI agent work: the model decides on a step, calls a tool, reads the result and decides the next step…
- [Hallucination](https://ecosystem.samcarlton.com/hallucination): When an AI model states something false or invented as though it were true.
- [AFK](https://ecosystem.samcarlton.com/afk): Short for away from keyboard.
- [Permission request](https://ecosystem.samcarlton.com/permission-request): The pause where an agent asks before it takes an action its permission mode does not allow on its own.
- [Human review](https://ecosystem.samcarlton.com/human-review): A person reading and approving what an agent produced before it goes live.
- [Grilling](https://ecosystem.samcarlton.com/grilling): Having an agent question you one decision at a time until the plan is clear, before any building starts.
- [Turn](https://ecosystem.samcarlton.com/turn): One round of a conversation with an agent: you send a message, and the agent works until it hands control back to you.
- [Permission mode](https://ecosystem.samcarlton.com/permission-mode): The rules that decide which actions an agent may take on its own and which need your approval first.
- [Software factory](https://ecosystem.samcarlton.com/software-factory): A way of organizing work where events, not people, start agent sessions.
- [Standard operating procedure](https://ecosystem.samcarlton.com/standard-operating-procedure): Written step-by-step instructions for doing a routine task the same way every time.

Map view: https://ecosystem.samcarlton.com/human-in-the-loop