Human in the loop

Guardrails are the policy, tone, and action limits an AI agent is not permitted to cross, such as refusing to issue refunds above a threshold or to discuss topics outside its remit. Guardrails are enforced in the system rather than merely requested in the prompt.

Quality assurance is the structured review of conversations against a scorecard, applied to human agents and AI agents alike. Traditional QA samples a handful of conversations per agent each month; automated QA scores every conversation, which changes the exercise from spot-checking into actual measurement.

Agent assist is a copilot layer inside the agent desktop that drafts replies, retrieves relevant policy, and suggests the next best action while a human stays in control of the conversation. It shortens handle time and reduces variation between agents without removing the person from the interaction.

A hybrid support model has AI handling routine, high-volume contacts while human agents own complex, sensitive, or high-value interactions. The design question is not what the technology can handle but where the cost of an error is high enough to justify keeping a person in the conversation.