Wharton study finds managers can’t agree who’s to blame when workplace AI fails

Companies are handing AI agents more independence at work. They have not yet decided who answers for it when those agents get something wrong. That’s the core finding of a new report from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, produced with research firm GBK Collective. When asked who should be accountable after an AI system fails, respondents did not converge on an answer. They split into near-equal camps, like a jury that can’t even agree which defendant is on trial. A three-way tie with no winner The survey covered 1,416 US enterprise leaders and employees. Researchers asked a simple question: when AI makes a mistake on the job, whose problem is it? The answers landed in roughly even thirds. The employee who deployed the AI, that employee’s manager, and the company’s risk team each drew approximately 25% of responses. Around 10% of respondents pointed at the AI vendor. Roughly a similar share said they simply didn’t know who was responsible. The picture didn’t get much clearer among managers specifically. Within that group, 28% said governance or risk management teams should own an AI failure. Another 26% named the deploying employee’s manager, and 25% placed the ...