Rogue agents: when AI won’t listen
The rise of AI agents represents a major paradigm shift within a technology that, itself, has represented a major paradigm shift in the world as a whole. The ability of agents to actually execute tasks versus just relay information has proven a major step up from the generative models that came before them, which themselves were a major step up from the classic machine learning models that came before them. Now making up the
These agents add great power to software solutions but, at the same time, also introduce great risks. Yes, they perform
One key to safely using AI agents is to exercise stringent oversight to make sure it does not go off the rails. But then, even the most watchful of eyes must eventually blink — someone can be an expert in AI, work with it every day, consult others on how to use it, and still miss this or that detail and find themselves in a sub-optimal situation. As shown by the firm leaders, advisors and tech experts quoted below, even smart people can see agents go rogue.
But they also demonstrate that while agents can certainly go awry, they can also be corrected and set back on the right path. We asked AI specialists throughout the accounting world to share their personal experiences when an AI agent started doing something they did not want it to do, as well as how they eventually managed to fix it.
