“Human in the loop” is useful only when the loop has a defined trigger, owner and response.
Put review before irreversible actions
Payments, contractual commitments, destructive data changes and sensitive customer communications deserve approval. The agent can prepare the action and evidence; the authorised person commits it.
Escalate uncertainty
Use structured checks: missing required data, conflicting sources, low confidence, policy exceptions or unusual value. Do not rely on the model volunteering that it is unsure.
Sample normal work
Even when approval is unnecessary, review a percentage of ordinary outcomes. Sampling detects drift and creates new evaluation cases without blocking every transaction.
Make review efficient
Show the proposed action, evidence, uncertainty and relevant history in one place. If the reviewer has to search five tools, the control will be bypassed under pressure.
Earn greater autonomy
Track approval rate, correction rate, failure severity and performance by scenario. Expand autonomy only where evidence shows the workflow is reliable.
Human oversight is not an apology for weak automation. Designed properly, it is the control system that allows useful automation to operate safely.