Human-in-the-loop

You might say

The AI can research the itinerary and flights, but it must ask me before paying or issuing a ticket.

Pausing an AI workflow before a critical decision or high-risk action so a person can review, approve, reject, or correct itA travel agent may search and compare flights automatically, but before payment it should show the dates, passenger, total, and change rules and wait for approval. Human-in-the-loop adds decision points where they matter rather than making a person watch every step.

Know first

AI Agent Tool Calling

HITLHuman in the Loop

Where a travel agent must return control to a person

FICTIONAL EXAMPLE · PRICES FOR EXPLANATION ONLYShanghai ⇄ Tokyo · Weekend tripTravel Agent

Selected itineraryFri 18:40 · SHA → HND · 2h 45mSun 19:10 · HND → SHA · 3h 10m

Passenger: Lin · 1 adult
Baggage: 1 × 20 kg checked
Change rule: ¥680 fee · non-refundable

Payment & ticketing

Total with taxes¥4,260

RESEARCHED6 options compared; no charge has occurred

Search and comparison are read-only, so the agent can complete them automatically.

Human-in-the-loop keeps low-risk research automatic and places a human decision before the high-risk action.

What makes a useful human decision point

Pause before the action: Search and comparison can run automatically. Charging, ticketing, publishing, or deletion must be blocked before the high-risk action occurs.

Show enough information to decide: An approval cannot be only “continue?” The interface should show the object, scope, cost, rules, and expected consequence.

Return the decision to the same run: Approval resumes from the pause, rejection stops it, and corrections return with human feedback without restarting the whole task.

Quick checkChoose the best answer

A travel agent has found a suitable flight and is about to ticket it with a saved payment method. Where should human-in-the-loop approval occur?

Pause before charging and ticketing, show the dates, passenger, total, and change rules, then continue only after approvalCharge and issue the ticket automatically, then ask the user to review the orderRequire approval for every flight search, including read-only comparisons

You can say this to an AI Agent

You may search and compare weekend flights from Shanghai to Tokyo automatically, but pause before payment and ticketing. Show the round-trip dates, passenger, total with taxes, baggage, and change rules. Continue only after my explicit approval, and stop if I reject or the information changes.

Learn next

1Authorization→2Authentication→3Agent Loop→4Harness Engineering→