From AI Hype to Real Value: Why We Must Keep Humans in the Loop

I recently saw a LinkedIn post that used an image as its eye-catcher to underline the article’s main point: a switch from hype to disciplined work creating real value. The switch depicted in the image, however, was physically incapable of making that change. The labels for what it could be flipped to were on the left and right, while the type of switch shown could only be flipped up and down.

Do we switch it up, down, left, right? Does it always turn the writing to green and "on"? Checking AI output matters.

It felt particularly ironic to see this mishap used to illustrate that very topic. Surely, a move from hype to disciplined work would include checking an AI-generated image for plausibility – or crafting the prompt used to create it with a bit more care in the first place. This is not meant to criticise the use of AI, but to highlight a fact that remains true: we need to keep the human in the loop.

Many companies have deployed AI over recent years out of a need to keep up with the times, but often without a solid plan for making it reliable, trustworthy, and efficient to use. This can turn AI assistants into inefficient toys rather than genuinely helpful tools. At worst, unsafe usage of AI can destroy important data, leak company secrets, and damage the business itself.

Automation is tempting, and the idea of removing human input from certain work tasks can be appealing, especially under pressure to move faster and do more with fewer resources. But removing humans from the process entirely often creates more problems than it solves.

The solution is not to deploy more AI. The solution is to plan appropriately before deploying it:

• Make sure the underlying data is correct, clean, and discoverable for AI systems

• Ensure that AI is not allowed to make changes without approval from a human who is trained in the subject matter.

• Make AI work for you and your expertise, rather than giving up your skills and agency to an untrained gadget.

In our field, managing company knowledge, this means not blindly trusting untrained AI to find information, and not allowing AI to make changes to knowledge bases without human approval. For our clients, it means not simply deploying AI assistants on top of company wikis and hoping they will magically produce correct answers to every possible question. It means keeping knowledge governance in the hands of people, supported by technology.

Let AI do the work it excels at, especially tasks that are tedious for humans, but keep the human in the loop when it comes to expert knowledge and decision-making, always in the best interest of users.

Don’t let AI run rampant and create user frustration or damage your company’s image:

• work together with it

• guide it, and

• shape it to deliver the results you actually want: not low-quality output driven by AI hype, but dedicated work supported by a well-honed tool.

Do you want to make sure your company’s AI assistants can work on a trustworthy, high-quality foundation? Contact us to help bring clarity to the content chaos.