From Tool to Agent: How Worker Needs Reorganize Across the Agentic Roles of Workplace AI

Excerpt

arXiv:2605.03078v2 Announce Type: replace Abstract: As AI systems gain agency in workplaces, workers increasingly interact with systems that do more than support tasks: they make decisions, allocate work, and shape how workers communicate with others. We interviewed 16 workers in healthcare, finance, and management about their daily interactions with workplace AI systems. Across these domains, AI occupied three agentic roles: \emph{assistant}, supporting worker decision-making; \emph{arbiter}, m