AI agents are not your “coworkers”

Research by Boston University professor Emma Wiles shows that calling AI agents (software tools programmed to work in loops toward specific goals) "coworkers" or "employees" actually makes humans worse at their jobs: people caught 18% fewer errors and were 44% more likely to pass questionable work to managers instead of correcting it themselves when AI was framed as an employee rather than a tool. This framing inverts responsibility, making humans feel less accountable for AI outputs and creating unrealistic expectations, especially as AI agents get embedded in critical fields like healthcare and government.