Summary
Human-in-the-Loop (HITL) allows you the benefits of automation (including AI-generated content) with human supervision
HITL is additional functionality that you can enable for individual steps in Custom Automations
You configure which User(s) are approvers, and also at what point the approval request will expire and what will happen at expiry
When the Automation runs, it will pause at that step and notify the approver(s), who can review the details, edit as necessary, and then click "Approve" (or "Reject"). If approved, the Automation run will then continue
Approvers can do this review/approval from either their Planhat notifications or within the Automation in the App Center
Who is this article for?
Planhat Users who are building Custom Automations for their organization
Planhat Users who may be approving Automation run steps
Series
This article is part of our extensive series on Automations. Some key articles are:
Article contents
What is Human-in-the-Loop (HITL) in Automations?
HITL is an option available for most step types when you are configuring/building Custom Automations (in the App Center).
When the Automation then runs, it will pause at this HITL step until the continuation is approved by an approver (Planhat User) specified in the HITL step in the Automation builder. As an approver, you can approve it either via your Planhat notifications ...
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... or in the Automation itself:
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In either case, you can click into the message to view step details, make edits if desired, and then either approve (in which case, the Automation run continues) or reject.
Why use Human-in-the-Loop (HITL) in Automations?
HITL enables you to have the speed and convenience of automating actions using Custom Automations (to avoid manual data entry, for example), while at the same time giving you more control.
HITL is commonly used in combination with AI steps. This means that, within a Planhat Automation, you can use AI to analyze and generate data, but then you can double check the generated draft before the action is carried out - e.g. before data is updated in Planhat, or a notification is sent, or (in a planned future release) an email is scheduled/sent.
For example, this could be an Automation that analyzes a customer call transcript and updates data on the "Company" in Planhat, including creating an "Issue" if a bug or feature request was discussed. While you may have a "Use AI" step to draft the content, you can set up HITL for the action step (e.g. "Update Company"), giving you the chance to check - and if necessary, edit - the details before proceeding.
The screenshots below show a couple of examples of HITL used in Custom Automation steps.
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📌 Important to note
At time of writing, access to the "Schedule Email" step (as shown in the example above) is controlled via a toggle switch accessible to Planhat staff members in Planhat Labs. Please speak with your Planhat representative if you would like to learn more about this step type.
The screenshot below shows an example of the review process, where an Automation is running and has paused at a "Create Opportunity" step, awaiting approval. The approver can check the text (in this case generated by AI), and edit it if desired, before approving the Opportunity to be created.
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How to set up Human-in-the-Loop (HITL) in Automations
📌 Important to note
At time of writing, access to HITL in Automations is controlled via a toggle switch within Planhat Labs (in the Help menu). Please reach out to your Planhat representative if you don't currently have access to this feature but would like to enable it.
When you are configuring a Custom Automation (in the App Center), for most step types (not Wait steps or Branch steps, and not including triggers), you will see a symbol of a check mark (tick) in a circle, with a tooltip referring to HITL.
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Clicking on this check mark (tick) will open up a new section in the configuration panel, where you can set up HITL for this step. (You will also see the check mark has turned green, to show that this has been activated.)
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The three configurable elements are:
"Approver"
Use the dropdown menu to select one or more Users (Team Members) - you / your co-workers
Alternatively, click on the icon of an arrow in a circle to switch to using replacement codes / dynamic references (also sometimes called merge tags), such as
<<object.owner>>The specified User(s) will receive the notification when approval is required, and only they will be able to approve or reject
"Expiration (days)"
This is a number field where you define how long the approval request is valid for, before it expires
This works in combination with the setting described next
"On Expiration"
Use the dropdown menu to choose what will happen to the Automation run if an approval request expires, the options being:
"Stop (Halt automation)"
"Continue (Proceed without approval)"
For example:
Or:
That's it! Very simple.
(You can set this up for multiple steps within the same Automation if needed.)
How to approve or reject a HITL step in an Automation run
Option 1: from notifications
If you are stated as an "Approver" in the Automation (as we just described above), and then that Automation is run, when it gets to the HITL step, you will receive an "Approval required" notification.
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The notification message gives you information about the Automation, step and trigger, as well as the approval expiry.
Clicking on the notification opens up a review (preview) panel, where you can see further details of the Automation run, make edits if applicable, and then click "Approve" or "Reject".
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Once you have responded to the approval request, the notification text will update accordingly, to show that action is no longer required.
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Option 2: from the Custom Automation (in the App Center)
Alternatively, you can approve (or reject) the Automation run request from the App Center.
You will see a red dot on the Automation that highlights that action is required.
Clicking on the Automation in the list to open up its configuration details, there is an "Approvals" tab specifically for HITL approvals. Clicking into this, you see the "Pending" tab, showing Automation runs currently awaiting approval.
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You can either use the buttons here to quickly approve or reject ...
... or you can click on the step name here to open up a details panel, where you can review, edit if necessary, and then approve or reject.
Responding to the approval request here will also update the notification wording, so if you look there you will see that it has been resolved.
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Further details - Q&A
How does it work if a HITL step has multiple approvers?
If an Automation step is set up with HITL and more than one approver:
Each approver will receive the notification requesting review
Only one approver needs to actually do the approval/rejection
Then, the text in the notification for the other approver(s) will update so they can see that action is no longer required from them
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When reviewing an Automation in the App Center, why can't I approve or reject - why do I see the message "You do not have permission to approve or reject this request"?
This (as shown in the first screenshot below) indicates that you were not listed as an approver for this HITL step in the Custom Automation editor panel (as shown in the second screenshot below). Only approvers listed here can approve or reject the step.
How can I view the history of HITL reviews/approvals?
When viewing a Custom Automation (in the App Center), within the "Approvals" tab, if you click into "All approvals" within that, you can see the history of approvals for that Automation, including both pending and resolved ones.
You can click on any of these list items to see further details, such as which User carried out the approval.
