AI Agents in the Workplace

The following article first appeared on Robinson+Cole’s Manufacturing Law Blog. It is reposted here with permission.

As artificial intelligence continues to play a significant role in how employers streamline operations, simplify workflows, and increase productivity, some employers are turning to highly advanced AI agents to take over multi-step, complex tasks that go far beyond the chatbots with which employees have become familiar.

Now, some employers are taking the next step by using such highly advanced AI agents with human names to complete complex, multi-step assignments—not simply respond to prompts.

However, employers should consider the extent to which giving AI agents human names, job titles, and places on an organizational chart may impact their human employees.

An AI agent is an autonomous, goal-driven, digital system that uses a large language model embedded with an organization’s resources, tools, and information to reason, plan, and make decisions without meaningful human oversight.

Unlike an AI chatbot that provides a response to a prompt, an AI agent can coordinate actions across business functions and manage an entire decision-making process from start to finish.

‘Colleagues’