Three Ghanaian entrepreneurs earned a Webby Award for building AI technology designed to keep humans involved in critical decisions.
A mobile device displays the Human in the Loop app in Accra, Ghana, a platform designed to add human oversight to AI-driven workflows and automated decision-making systems.

Growing up in Ghana, access to computers and the Internet in the late 2000s was relatively rare, according to Dominic Damoah, a Ghanaian-born tech entrepreneur and AI engineer based in Palo Alto, California.

But those struggles didn't stop him from learning more about computers. Damoah said he stayed connected through programming materials, often flipping through books, studying diagrams and pictures when hands-on access wasn't available.

Fast forward to 2026, and Damoah's passion for computers didn't stop. What began as a side hustle, after failed startups, ultimately earned him and his teammates one of the Internet's highest honors: a Webby Award.

"So, this side hustle is something that popped up last year. The only reason I got into the side hustle in the first place was because I'd been doing startups in the United States for like two years, and none of my startups had made money," he said. "I told myself that I'm not going to do another startup; I'm going to work for another company and make some money and potentially explore something in AI," he added.

"I told myself that I'm not going to do another startup, I'm going to work for another company, and make some money and potentially explore something in AI," he added.
Damoah is now co-technical lead at HITL.

Building AI with humans in mind

The award recognizes projects that prioritize safety, accountability and ethical deployment of artificial intelligence. 

HITL adds human oversight to AI agents and automates workflows, helping to execute sensitive actions safely.

In practice, Human in the Loop can be used to manage AI agents that carry out everyday workplace tasks, such as checking and responding to email, processing tickets, among other things, said Kwaw Fletcher Frimpong, team lead at HITL, who is based in the UK.

"But then, there was one question: how do you make sure that it doesn't cause any problems? It means there needs to be a human element in it. That's where the concept of Human in the Loop around AI governance [came from]," Frimpong told Connecting Africa.

The company's mission arrives at a time when questions about AI safety and oversight are increasingly shaping public discourse.

According to Reuters, concerns about insufficient human monitoring have intensified after a hacker targeted Instagram users in June 2026.

Reuters reported that this has exposed a "critical flaw at the heart of the company's push to automate sensitive user functions."

This flaw resulted in hackers gaining access to the idle Obama White House account and other influential accounts, like beauty retailer Sephora. 
The issue of AI safety has also attracted attention from AI researchers.

In February 2026, former Anthropic AI safety researcher Mrinank Sharma resigned from the company, stating on X that the "world is in peril" because of AI and pointing to his final research examining how AI assistants could make people "less human" or "distort our humanity."

The HITL team believes its focus on human oversight resonated with Webby voters.

"Because there were a lot of details about the products and the kind of problem that we are solving. I'm sure it's related to a lot of people [who] say, 'okay, this is a good thing ... this sounds like something that is solving real problems that affect the masses'," Frimpong explained.

With international recognition now under its belt, the team is assessing what it will take to scale Human in the Loop and support its next stage of growth.

"One thing that we are actually trying to do [is to conduct an] evaluation before we come out to know exactly how much we will need in terms of the next phase of Human in the Loop," Frimpong said.

"I'm sure that once we do that determination, we'll be very confident in terms of how much we will need to be able to scale up," he added.
While the team is focused on securing the resources needed to grow Human in the Loop, they are equally committed to easing fears about AI and promoting a future in which humans and machines work together.

"So, people should have an open mind [that AI isn't going] to take our job, it's not going to be harmful to us. Let's look at the positive aspects of it and multiply or amplify that aspect," said Philemon Kwesi Hini, who is based in Accra, Ghana, and is the co-technical lead of Human in the Loop. 

"I'm sure we'll be able to build a better system where humans can work or co-exist with AI, just like we do with the traditional computer systems," he added.

For the team, the Webby Award is not just recognition of a successful side project worked on from three different continents. It is also validation that AI systems designed with human oversight can find public support at a time when trust in AI remains a growing concern.