Sidebar Speaker Series: Who’s Really in the Loop? Designing AI Products Where Humans Still Matter with Su Belagodu
Most AI-powered products claim to have “human-in-the-loop.” Very few can explain where the human actually changes outcomes.
In this Sidebar session, we’ll move past buzzwords and ethics checklists and look at Human-in-the-Loop (HITL) as a core product design skill especially for teams building AI into everyday SaaS workflows.
Using two familiar scenarios AI customer support & triage and AI onboarding & activation we’ll examine where product teams often think humans are in control, but in reality, automation quietly takes over.
This will be a highly interactive session.
You’ll run a live HITL self-assessment against your own product and walk away with a clear sense of:
Where AI decisions stop and where humans should step in
Whether accountability in your product is explicit or accidental
How override mechanisms, feedback loops, and transparency are actually designed today
Why many teams ship “accidental HITL” without realizing it
This session is not about slowing AI down.
It’s about designing systems that learn faster, earn user trust, and scale responsibly.
You’ll leave with:
A practical framework to assess HITL maturity in any AI-powered product
A clearer mental model for designing human + AI collaboration
One concrete change you can make to improve your product’s HITL design immediately
Who this is for:
Product managers, GTM Engineers, founders, and builders working on AI-powered products.
Speaker Bio:
Su Belagodu is a Product and Go-to-market advisor who works with founders and leadership teams to design and scale AI-powered products with clarity, accountability, and trust.
She is the Managing Partner at Intellectus Advisors, where she advises and acts as an embedded operator for early-stage and growth-stage startups. Her work focuses on AI system design, product strategy, and GTM execution, helping teams translate AI capabilities into products that drive real adoption with particular emphasis on ethical Human-in-the-Loop (HITL) system design across product workflows, customer experience, and decision-making.
Previously, Su was a co-founder of an AI-native startup, where she built and shipped AI-powered products end-to-end and experienced firsthand the challenges of balancing speed, automation, and responsible system design. She now brings that operator perspective into hands-on workshops for Product and GTM teams, working directly with teams to move from abstract AI ambition to practical, defensible systems.
Su is a Forbes Technology Council member, where she regularly publishes thought leadership on AI adoption, human-centered product design, and the gap between AI velocity and product clarity. She is known for translating complex AI concepts into practical frameworks that product builders can apply immediately.