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Human in the loop: escalation or human step
When to let an AI agent escalate to a human, when to add a human step to the workflow, and tips for both.
Some decisions need a human. A workflow can bring one in two ways: the AI agent asks for help when it needs it, or the workflow asks a human at a fixed step. Which one fits depends on who decides that a human is needed.
Two ways to involve a human
- An escalation: you connect it to the agent's Escalations handle. The agent decides during its work that it shouldn't decide alone. It pauses, a human answers, and the agent continues with the answer. Autonomous Agent describes how to set one up.
- A human step: a Quick Form or Action App node in the workflow itself. Every run that reaches it waits for a human, and the human's choice, such as Approve or Reject, sends the run down its own path. Quick Form describes the node.
Which one fits
| Your situation | Use |
|---|---|
| A human must check every case at a known point, for example every refund before it's paid | A human step |
| The workflow branches on the human's choice, such as approve or reject | A human step |
| Only unclear cases need a human, and the agent should decide which ones | An escalation |
| The agent needs the human's answer to finish its own work | An escalation |
| In a chat, the conversation should keep going while someone approves in the background | A human step on a parallel branch |
In a chat, an escalation from a Conversational agent pauses the conversation until the human answers. A human step on a parallel branch lets the conversation continue.
Tips
- Tell the agent when to escalate. Describe the situations in the agent's system prompt, for example: "If the amount is above 200, escalate for review instead of acting." An agent escalates more reliably when the rule is concrete.
- Plan for answers the same day. A run finishes within 24 hours, so the human should be able to answer within that time.
- Reuse the form builder. Escalations use the same visual form builder as the Quick Form node, so a form you know from one works in the other.
- Test without waiting for a human. In debug mode, mock the human step so it returns a sample answer. Add human approval to a workflow shows how.
Next steps
- Add human approval to a workflow: build an approval step from start to finish.
- Quick Form: the fields, outcomes, and delivery channels of a human step.
- Autonomous Agent: escalations and the other resources an agent can use.
- Community: ask questions and share workflows with other builders on the UiPath Forum.