This is the right question. We work with small business operators who use AI to handle admin and ops tasks, and the accountability gap shows up fast when there is no review layer.
The pattern we see: AI handles the repetitive stuff well (scheduling, data entry, basic triage). But the moment it touches anything customer-facing or financial, you need a human checkpoint. Not because the AI is bad, but because the cost of a wrong decision scales differently in those areas.
HITL is not about trust — it is about risk management. Let the AI draft, summarize, and flag. Let the human approve, send, and decide. That split works surprisingly well in practice.