"Human in the Loop" is Too Small: How Agentic AI Unlocks Human Agency

“Human in the loop” is a phrase we hear constantly in the AI space. It’s meant to be reassuring—reminding us that humans are still in control, still the ultimate decision-makers.

But after a recent conversation with a leader during an AI coaching sprint, I’ve realized that “human in the loop” is actually too small a vision. The real shift isn’t about staying in the loop; it’s about humans moving up a level.

From Chatting to Unleashing

This leader was finishing a sprint where they had undergone a significant transformation. They started by simply chatting with AI and using tools like Claude Code for very specific, isolated tasks.

By the end, they were unleashing agentic AI on several complex problems, scaling their context, and integrating an AI “second brain.”

It was a massive leap in capability. But it also brought up a deep, almost philosophical question:

“If the AI is doing so much more… what’s remaining for me as a leader to do?”

Elevating to Strategic Loops

The answer isn’t that the leader becomes irrelevant. It’s that they ascend.

We talked about elevating to more strategic loops and interactions:

• Shaping the work and the workflow: Defining the “what” and the “how” at a higher level of abstraction.
• Designing the agents and the guardrails: Creating the systems that the AI operates within.
• Orchestrating and curating: Aligning rules, values, and skills across their team and the entire company.
• Setting the next decision: Moving from execution to high-level direction.

This isn’t just about efficiency; it’s about having the time and opportunity to achieve a higher level of mastery in their field.

The New Agency Equation

As I reflected on this, I kept coming back to Dan Pink’s classic Autonomy, Mastery, and Purpose model for human drive.

In the age of Agentic AI, I’d probably swap Autonomy for Agency.

And Mastery? It starts to look like a weird new craft: getting good at creating AI agents that make your old work disappear.

You don’t do this to become irrelevant. You do it so you can take on bigger problems and opportunities that were previously out of reach.

An Exercise for Your Team (and Your Agents)

Years ago, I created an exercise called the Autonomy Mastery Purpose Retrospective. It feels incredibly relevant again as we think about AI adoption.

You can use it to explore how AI is impacting your organization by asking three key questions:

1. Agency: How is what we’re doing with AI contributing to human agency? In what ways are we standing in the way of it?
2. Mastery: What are we doing to create the conditions for people to pursue mastery? Where are we keeping people fixed where they are—or even causing them to regress in their skills?
3. Purpose: Are we creating a high-purpose environment? Or are we “growing people like mushrooms”—feeding them crap and keeping them in the dark?

And for a modern twist: You can even run this exercise to explore what level of Agency, pursuit of Mastery, and connection to Purpose you are giving your AI Agents.

If you want to run the full version of this exercise, you might find this detailed write-up useful: Getting Real About Your Values: The Values Retrospective

Transforming your leadership and organizational operating system for the agentic era is exactly what I help with. Explore AI Transformation advisory or to discuss how to elevate your team.