# Gary in the Loop

> A cartoon by the VARIA team about AI agents and the human in the loop. Brad went AI-first. The AI marks every ticket done, and every ticket still lands on Gary.

Gary in the Loop by VARIA is made by the VARIA team (https://heyvaria.com). The VARIA team. VARIA prices an AI decision flow before you build it (tokens, the people still in the loop, wrong routes, the wait) and shows where to cut. AI-assisted animation: drawings from an image model and synthetic voices, written and edited by people. Characters and voices are AI-generated.

## Pages
- [Home (Markdown)](https://garyintheloop.com/index.md): the whole home page as Markdown: why Gary drowns, the Gary bill, the cast, where to follow
- [Home](https://garyintheloop.com/): the office you can poke, "Why Gary drowns", the "Your Gary bill" calculator, the story form, the cast, the portal to VARIA
- [Cast](https://garyintheloop.com/cast): Gary (Support. Gets every ticket.); Brad (Founder. AI-first. Believes.); The AI (Helpful. Expensive. Always “done”.); The cat (Judges.)
- [Tell Gary](https://garyintheloop.com/tell-gary): send an AI horror story; the best may become a clip, names changed
- [About](https://garyintheloop.com/about): who makes the show, how it is made, what the numbers mean, questions people ask, what is kept

## Clips
- Clip pages with transcripts appear here once each clip is approved. Until then the clips live on the channels below.

## Gary's notes
- [The AI resolved 100 tickets. 28 came to me.](https://garyintheloop.com/notes/resolved-tickets-that-came-back): In VARIA's demo support flow, 27.5% of tickets still reach a person, 1.09 touches each. At $3 a touch, people cost $0.90 a ticket and the machines $0.0010. Modelled. Markdown: https://garyintheloop.com/notes/resolved-tickets-that-came-back.md

## The numbers
When a clip jokes about money, its page shows the real number behind it. Those come from the VARIA demo support flow and are modelled, not measured at a customer: the machines cost $0.0010 a ticket, people $0.90 and wrong routes $0.42; 28% of tickets still reach a person; one human touch costs $3.

## Your Gary bill (calculator)
- Gary's tickets = tickets a month × the share that still reaches a person.
- People bill = Gary's tickets × 1.09 touches × one human touch. Some tickets need a second touch (a refund reply held for review), so the VARIA demo counts 1.09 touches per ticket that reaches a person (modelled): $0.90 a ticket, the same as on heyvaria.com.
- AI bill = tickets a month × $0.0010, what the machines cost per ticket in the VARIA demo support flow (modelled). Your model and prompts will differ.
- Not counted here: wrong routes. In the VARIA demo they cost $0.42 a ticket (modelled).
- With the VARIA demo's numbers (50,000 tickets a month, 27.5% reach a person, $3 a touch): Gary gets 13,750 tickets a month, the people bill is $45,086 a month, the AI bill $52, so Gary costs 870× the AI. All modelled.

## Questions people ask
- What is Gary in the Loop? A cartoon about an AI-first office. The AI marks tickets done, and Gary, the one person left in support, still gets them.
- What does the human in the loop cost in AI support? In the VARIA demo support flow, 28% of tickets still reach a person. At $3 a human touch, people cost $0.90 a ticket and the machines $0.0010 (all modelled). The Gary bill runs the same maths on your numbers.
- What is VARIA? A tool that prices an AI decision flow before you build it: tokens, the people still in the loop, wrong routes and the wait, plus where to cut. It lives at heyvaria.com.
- Can I send Gary a story? Yes, on the Tell Gary page. The best stories may become clips, with names and details changed.

## Channels
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@garyintheloop
- TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@garyintheloop
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/garyintheloop/
- X: https://x.com/garyintheloop

## Contact
- itsme@garyintheloop.com