Human-in-the-Loop AI: Why It's Time to Think of AI as a Teammate
AI, when viewed through the lens of collaboration rather than competition, should empower humans — and never replace.
There’s a lot of buzz around AI — some are excited, but others are understandably nervous, fearing job displacement and radical changes to our daily lives. But what if AI could actually be our partner, helping us be better at what we do? What if, instead of thinking about AI as a looming competitor that is ready to replace human intelligence, we viewed it as a new kind of teammate — intelligent yet collaborative, superpowered yet humble? This is where the concept of human-in-the-loop (HITL) AI comes in, and it’s the philosophy that drives our product development.
Collaboration, Not Competition
AI, when viewed through the lens of collaboration rather than competition, should empower humans, freeing them to do what they are uniquely good at — creative problem-solving, collaboration, and using judgment to solve complex challenges.
Imagine an AI teammate that can take on the time-consuming and labor-intensive work, like collecting and analyzing a plethora of logs, condensing them into concise summaries. Or providing you with the metrics, graphs, or insights you need at the right time, within the context of an incident.
We’re steadfast in our belief that AI — fabulous at tasks like analyzing large amounts of data, finding patterns, and providing contextual analyses — working alongside the unique expertise of humans will be the best partnership for modern ops teams.
The Need for Human-in-the-Loop AI
AI is still in its early stages. Known to occasionally “hallucinate” or make errors in judgment, it’s not a technology that we can hand over complete control to. Imagine deploying AI-generated automations in an operations environment without any human oversight — the risk would be high.
A human-in-the-loop approach to AI ensures that humans still have the final say. People should be able to validate, modify, or even veto actions suggested or taken by AI, providing a necessary layer of oversight.
Our Philosophy Manifested: Human-in-the-Loop AI in Our Product
AI-Powered Automation
Our product is built with this human-in-the-loop AI philosophy at its core. For example, our AI-powered automation allows you to create new automations in seconds using natural language. Want to “add a reaction to a Slack message”? Just tell our AI, and it will do the heavy lifting for you. But here’s the clincher — once the AI has created this automation, humans can modify the output and give it the final stamp of approval. In other words, the AI does the hard work, but humans retain control.
A “Superpowered” AI Operator
Taking it a step further, our AI operator acts as a “superpowered” teammate who works side by side with you from alert to resolution. Using data from your conversations, automated actions, and historical incident data, it gains insights tailored to your specific needs. Most importantly, it offers suggestions and options — but never replaces the unique expertise and qualities of your team.
The Way Forward: Empowering Humans
Our AI advancements are designed to assist but not replace. With every AI update, we’ve made humans the final decision-makers. We believe seeing AI as a teammate, collaborator, and hopefully a fun companion is the right approach for the complexity of modern ops. As we move forward, we’ll continue to develop our AI capabilities, always with the goal of empowering humans rather than replacing them.
AI is not about giving you another piece of software; it’s about giving you a well-trained, intelligent teammate. That’s the future we’re building. Are you in? Join the AI Operator private waitlist.
