May 6, 2026
Harvard Business Review recently published an article co-authored by Emma Wiles, Isabel Anderson Career Development Professor, Information Systems, discussing the unintended consequences of treating AI agents like human employees in the workplace.
Based on a large-scale experiment, Wiles and her co-researchers found that anthropomorphizing AI systems reduced personal accountability, increased unnecessary escalation and review cycles, lowered quality control, and heightened employee uncertainty about their professional roles. The study also found that framing AI as a “teammate” or “employee” did not meaningfully increase the adoption of the technology.
Instead, the authors argue that organizations should focus less on positioning AI as a human equivalent and more on redesigning workflows, governance, and managerial oversight to ensure humans remain clearly accountable for AI-supported work.
