Should You Treat AI Like a Teammate?

The Insider is a weekly, subscriber-only newsletter, where our managing editor curates HBR stories, research, and ideas that senior leaders shouldn’t miss. As organizations integrate AI into their workflows, they face a choice: Should they treat AI agents more like employees or more like tools? Leaders may assume that anthropomorphizing AI will make the technology feel more approachable. But are they being too quick to move in this direction? In a new article this week, a team of BCG economists and a Boston University professor argue “yes.” They outline five early and unexpected effects of treating AI agents too much like humans, including: Blurred accountability. “When AI was framed as an employee rather than as a tool, personal accountability fell by 9 percentage points, while accountability attributed to the AI rose by 8 percentage points,” the group says about their study. “This is problematic, because today’s AI systems cannot be held accountable and require clear human ownership.” Stalled adoption. While leaders may think that agent colleagues will make it more likely for people to start using AI, the study’s findings don’t indicate that. “Participants exposed to the AI employee framing did not report higher adoption intent than those exposed to the AI tool framing,” the authors write. Identity confusion. The researchers found that managers were 13% more likely to report uncertainty about their professional identity when AI was framed as a teammate or employee rather than as a way to boost productivity. Further, they found a 7% higher concern about job security and a 10% lower level of trust in AI when agents were anthropomorphized. As one person noted, “If you want people to feel like they will lose their job to AI, or can be easily replaced by AI, then put it on the org chart.” The authors go on to recommend five ways organizational leaders can redesign the work of both AI and humans to get the best out of both. Related: The psychological costs of adopting AI. The Art of Discounting Is discounting a product an admission of defeat or a “superhero strategy”? For pricing consultant Rafi Mohammed, the answer is decidedly the latter, particularly if you need to boost profits quickly. Discounting, he writes in a new article, “is powerful, swiftly achieves results, and can be summoned at a moment’s notice. In an era of rising prices and consumer anxiety, if your company isn’t embracing discounting, it is missing out.” That said, you have to be strategic—you want to attract new customers while limiting people who might be fine paying full price from taking advantage of the discount. Mohammed suggests five ways to do this, including prompting current customers to purchase more and engendering goodwill with repeat customers. He also shares two common mistakes to avoid. Insider Insights: There’s Too Much Work Thanks to everyone who filled out our latest Insider Insights survey about employee engagement and what people are struggling with today. We had 152 responses, and here’s a high-level look at what you told us: Employees are generally engaged. All told, you say that people are more engaged than not. The majority of respondents (61%) said employees are definitely or probably engaged, with 17% saying they are probably or definitely not. (I’m choosing to believe these high engagement numbers are due to the fact that you read HBR!) Work volume and burnout top the list of struggles. When given a list of potential pain point options, including both internal issues and external stressors (you could choose as many that applied), managing work volume rose to the top, with 68% of people noting their employees are struggling with the sheer volume of what’s on their plates. This was followed closely by managing burnout (53%) and managing career trajectories, including layoffs and pivots (52%). And almost 50% of you noted that employees are managing stress in their personal lives around childcare, eldercare, and other financial strains. Constant change makes work volume and burnout worse. While there were lots of mentions of work volume and burnout in the open-ended portion of the survey, another theme came to the fore: the costs of constant change and shuffling priorities. Here are a few quotes that stood out to us: Everyone is being asked to do more with less. People are willing to take on the additional work, but the tools and resources to learn how to do the work are either non-existent or very little training is provided on existing tools. Everyone needs to slow down for a second and provide the guidance necessary to allow our teams to absorb the new responsibilities. One example of this issue appearing in employees’ work is the growing sense of uncertainty caused by frequent changes in management direction. Employees often begin working on a task or initiative, investing time and effort into it, only to be asked to stop and shift to a completely different priority with little notice. Almost everything is communicated as urgent, and priorities change rapidly. This pattern creates confusion, reduces efficiency, and affects morale, as employees feel their work is constantly interrupted and lacks continuity. Over time, this also impacts the quality of outputs, as there is limited opportunity to fully develop or complete tasks before moving on to the next demand. The speed of change makes it hard for people who are busy and under resourced to deliver the work we are paid to do by clients while also remaining on top of new requirements, managing new technologies, and managing their own learning pathways. We’ll be looking to commission content on the concerns you all mentioned—and stay tuned for a new survey in a few weeks. More Must-Reads and Listens The problem with main-character energy leadership. Will insurance protect your company in times of war? How sales teams undercut themselves with longtime clients. Tips for answering an unexpected question from an executive. To thrive in a world of continuous change, normalize discomfort and separate confidence from competence. (Our new IdeaCast episode featuring leadership expert Nilofer Merchant.)

Should You Treat AI Like a Teammate?

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