AI
AI Agents Are Becoming Workplace Coworkers—But Nobody Knows How to Manage Them
Large language model-based agents designed to work autonomously are rapidly entering corporate org charts, raising questions about how humans should interact with digital colleagues.
WIRED — AI
Hundreds of thousands of AI agents will soon join the workforce—not as tools, but as named colleagues with roles, avatars, and dedicated responsibilities embedded in Slack channels and email chains. Companies are racing to deploy these autonomous systems as everything from chiefs of staff to engineers, and the business case seems straightforward: they work 24/7, never tire, and require no benefits. Yet organizations are largely unprepared for what it actually means to collaborate with digital coworkers on a daily basis.
The Rapid Shift from Tool to Teammate#
Three years ago, Julie Bedard at Boston Consulting Group noticed something curious in how companies discussed AI at work: executives had no clear language for what these systems actually were. A recent survey of 1,261 managers found that 22 percent of organizations had already added AI agents to their official org charts—a figure likely to climb as startups and tech giants commercialize autonomous employees.
When Microsoft launched its Scout agent in June, the pitch was explicit: your company essentially hires a personal assistant that works while you sleep. The system can reschedule meetings, draft emails, and handle routine administrative tasks. Dozens of startups have followed with similar offerings, each designed to integrate seamlessly into existing workplace communication systems.
The Human-Like Interface as a Feature#
To encourage adoption, companies are deliberately making their agents feel like teammates rather than tools. Skydive, a platform that entered the market in August, equips each agent with a name tied to its function, a cloud-based presence, and a Muppet-style avatar that founder Dhruv Amin describes as "close to human, but definitely not human." The strategy works: users quickly begin referring to work done "with" the agent rather than "by" the agent, and early adopters report forming genuine attachments to their digital colleagues.
Pronto Housing CEO Christine Wendell has assigned agents names like Alice and Bob, using them to draft contracts, manage calendars, and handle customer follow-ups. She noticed something telling when her engineering team started saying they "worked with Alice" on projects—the agent had successfully passed as a coworker. Wendell herself admits she treats the agents differently than she would treat humans, feeling free to offer blunt corrections without worrying about hurt feelings.
