{"id":431315,"date":"2026-01-23T03:01:13","date_gmt":"2026-01-23T03:01:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/431315\/"},"modified":"2026-01-23T03:01:13","modified_gmt":"2026-01-23T03:01:13","slug":"companies-are-already-using-agentic-ai-to-make-decisions-but-governance-is-lagging-behind","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/431315\/","title":{"rendered":"Companies are already using agentic AI to make decisions, but governance is lagging behind"},"content":{"rendered":"

Businesses are acting fast to adopt agentic AI<\/a> \u2013 artificial intelligence systems that work without human guidance \u2013 but have been much slower to put governance in place to oversee them, a new survey shows<\/a>. That mismatch is a major source of risk in AI adoption. In my view, it\u2019s also a business opportunity.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m a professor of management information systems<\/a> at Drexel University\u2019s LeBow College of Business<\/a>, which recently surveyed more than 500 data professionals through its Center for Applied AI & Business Analytics<\/a>. We found that 41% of organizations are using agentic AI<\/a> in their daily operations. These aren\u2019t just pilot projects or one-off tests. They\u2019re part of regular workflows.<\/p>\n

At the same time, governance is lagging. Only 27% of organizations say their governance frameworks are mature enough to monitor and manage these systems effectively.<\/p>\n

In this context, governance is not about regulation or unnecessary rules. It means having policies and practices that let people clearly influence how autonomous systems work, including who is responsible for decisions, how behavior is checked, and when humans should get involved.<\/p>\n

This mismatch can become a problem when autonomous systems act in real situations before anyone can intervene.<\/p>\n

For example, during a recent power outage in San Francisco<\/a>, autonomous robotaxis got stuck at intersections, blocking emergency vehicles and confusing other drivers. The situation showed that even when autonomous systems behave \u201cas designed,\u201d unexpected conditions can lead to undesirable outcomes.<\/p>\n

This raises a big question: When something goes wrong with AI, who is responsible \u2013 and who can intervene? <\/p>\n

Why governance matters<\/p>\n

When AI systems act on their own, responsibility no longer lies where organizations expect it. Decisions still happen, but ownership is harder to trace. For instance, in financial services, fraud detection systems<\/a> increasingly act in real time to block suspicious activity before a human ever reviews the case. Customers often only find out when their card is declined.<\/p>\n

So, what if your card is mistakenly declined by an AI system? In that situation, the problem isn\u2019t with the technology itself \u2013 it\u2019s working as it was designed \u2013 but with accountability. Research on human-AI governance shows that problems happen when organizations don\u2019t clearly define how people and autonomous systems should work together<\/a>. This lack of clarity makes it hard to know who is responsible and when they should step in.<\/p>\n

Without governance designed for autonomy, small issues can quietly snowball. Oversight becomes sporadic and trust weakens, not because systems fail outright, but because people struggle to explain or stand behind what the systems do.<\/p>\n

When humans enter the loop too late<\/p>\n

In many organizations, humans are technically \u201cin the loop,\u201d but only after autonomous systems have already acted. People tend to get involved once a problem becomes visible \u2013 when a price looks wrong, a transaction is flagged or a customer complains. By that point, the system has already been decided, and human review becomes corrective rather than supervisory.<\/p>\n

Late intervention can limit the fallout from individual decisions, but it rarely clarifies who is accountable. Outcomes may be corrected, yet responsibility remains unclear.<\/p>\n

Recent guidance<\/a> shows that when authority is unclear, human oversight becomes informal and inconsistent. The problem is not human involvement, but timing. Without governance designed upfront, people act as a safety valve rather than as accountable decision-makers. <\/p>\n

How governance determines who moves ahead<\/p>\n

Agentic AI often brings fast, early results, especially when tasks are first automated. Our survey found that many companies see these early benefits. But as autonomous systems grow, organizations often add manual checks and approval steps to manage risk.<\/p>\n

Over time, what was once simple slowly becomes more complicated. Decision-making slows down, work-arounds increase, and the benefits of automation fade. This happens not because the technology stops working, but because people never fully trust autonomous systems<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This slowdown doesn\u2019t have to happen. Our survey shows a clear difference: Many organizations see early gains from autonomous AI, but those with stronger governance are much more likely to turn those gains into long-term results, such as greater efficiency and revenue growth. The key difference isn\u2019t ambition or technical skills, but being prepared.<\/p>\n

Good governance does not limit autonomy. It makes it workable by clarifying who owns decisions, how systems function is monitored, and when people should intervene. International guidance from the OECD<\/a> \u2013 the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development \u2013 emphasizes this point: Accountability and human oversight need to be designed into AI systems from the start, not added later.<\/p>\n

Rather than slowing innovation, governance creates the confidence organizations need to extend autonomy instead of quietly pulling it back.<\/p>\n

The next advantage is smarter governance<\/p>\n

The next competitive advantage in AI will not come from faster adoption, but from smarter governance. As autonomous systems take on more responsibility, success will belong to organizations that clearly define ownership, oversight and intervention from the start.<\/p>\n

In the era of agentic AI, confidence will accrue to the organizations that govern best, not simply those that adopt first.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Businesses are acting fast to adopt agentic AI \u2013 artificial intelligence systems that work without human guidance \u2013…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":431316,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[256,254,255,64,63,105],"class_list":["post-431315","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-artificial-intelligence","tag-ai","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-artificialintelligence","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/431315","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=431315"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/431315\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/431316"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=431315"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=431315"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=431315"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}