# Human-in-the-loop

A setup where a person approves each action before it happens.

Human in the loop means the person owns the goal and the steps: they tell the agent what to do or approve it at each step (e.g. accounts receivable where the person asks for each reminder draft, reviews it, sends it).

Also called: HITL, Human approval

Kind of: Human oversight

Often confused with: Human-as-judge, Meat proxy

The other half: Human-on-the-loop

Related: AI brain fry, Task runner

Source: https://redfinchadvisory.com/lexicon/human-in-the-loop (version 1.0, changed 2026-10-21)