Not every AI task should run on its own
It’s tempting to imagine AI features as fully autonomous. Input goes in, output comes out, the user gets the result — no human in between.
Sometimes that’s the right design. The task is well-bounded, the cost of a wrong answer is low, and the user can recover easily if something’s off.
Other times, full autonomy is the wrong design. The task is high-stakes, the AI’s accuracy isn’t high enough, the failure modes are damaging. In those cases, the product needs a human in the loop — a person reviewing, approving, or correcting the AI’s output before it has consequences.
Knowing when to design a human into the loop is one of the most important judgement calls in AI product design. It changes how the product works, how much trust it earns, and how safely ...
