MIT researcher finds AI agents framed as 'coworkers' reduce error detection by 18%

MIT Technology Review reports that Boston University professor Emma Wiles found people caught 18% fewer errors when work was attributed to an agentic 'AI employee' rather than a chatbot tool. Nearly a third of 1,261 managers surveyed said their companies frame AI agents as employees, with 23% listing them on org charts, a practice Wiles argues obscures accountability and liability gaps required for production deployment.