arXiv AI

Will AI Agents Free Us From Meaningless Work? A Human-Centered Analysis

arXiv:2606. 12430v1 Announce Type: cross Abstract: Some claim that AI agents will free workers from the boring parts of their jobs, yet little is known about how workers themselves identify which tasks should be automated.

arXiv AI
Aug 24

Who Delegates to AI? Evidence from 53,000 Agent Configurations

The paper introduces the Agentic Adoption Index (AAI), a new metric that captures whether workers actually delegate tasks to AI within their workflows, rather than merely measuring potential AI applicability. Using 53,000 agent skill specifications and 18,000 O*NET task statements, the authors find that occupations with high delegation differ from those previously deemed most at risk, that AAI aligns more closely with AI’s capabilities than current usage, and that adoption peaks at mid‑wage, bachelor’s‑level occupations while declining at both ends of the wage and education spectrum. The study highlights that technical availability explains much of the variation, but other factors—such as resistance to specification or professional discretion—also influence who adopts AI. whyItMatters":"The findings suggest that actual AI adoption patterns differ from prior risk assessments, indicating that factors beyond technical feasibility shape who delegates to AI, which has implications for workforce planning and policy."

By Hyeongjae Lee, Jihyang Cheon, Lanu Kim
arXiv AI
Sep 21

Value-Sensitive Delegation in Everyday AI Agent Use: Evidence from OpenClaw

The paper examines how users delegate tasks to the AI agent OpenClaw by analyzing 73,093 Reddit posts. It identifies 21 human values grouped into six categories—such as Autonomous Operation, Dependable Operation, Affordable Operation, Bounded Reach, Reviewability, and Equitable Access—and finds that values are largely satisfied when users describe the agent’s outputs but often unmet when users discuss supervising the agent. The authors term this pattern "value‑sensitive delegation," emphasizing that supporting human values requires attention to both what an agent does and the conditions users set around its use.

By Renkai Ma, Ruyuan Wan, Xuan Lu, Fan Yang, Chen Chen, Lingyao Li
arXiv AI
Sep 10

Who Delegates to AI? Evidence from Agent Configurations in Github

The paper introduces the Agentic Adoption Index (AAI), a new measure of delegated exposure that captures whether workers actually commit tasks to AI within structured workflows. Using semantic embeddings of 888,000 agent skill specifications from GitHub and 18,000 O*NET task statements, the authors find that occupations with high delegation differ from those most vulnerable to pre-AI automation, that AAI correlates more with technical capability than with current LLM use, and that for lower‑educated occupations AAI rises with wages while it falls for higher‑educated, high‑earning workers. These patterns also appear in an independent corpus from the Manus Skills Marketplace.

By Hyeongjae Lee, Jihyang Cheon, Lanu Kim
arXiv AI
Jun 26

Delegation and Verification Under AI

arXiv:2603. 02961v2 Announce Type: replace-cross Abstract: As AI systems enter institutional workflows, workers must decide whether to delegate task execution to AI and how much effort to invest in verifying AI outputs, while institutions evaluate workers using outcome-based standards that may misalign with workers' private costs.

By Lingxiao Huang, Wenyang Xiao, Nisheeth K. Vishnoi
arXiv AI
Sep 23

Biased AI improves human performance but reduces perceived helpfulness

The study tests deliberately biased AI assistants and finds that such bias improves human performance on tasks like misinformation evaluation, financial investment, and graduate education compared to neutral AI. However, participants undervalue biased AI and overvalue neutral AI, even when performance is similar. When two AI biases flank a participant’s perspective, performance gains are maintained while reducing the perceived cost and one‑sided influence.

By Shiyang Lai, Jiwoong Choi, Junsol Kim, Nadav Kunievsky, Yujin Potter, James Evans
arXiv AI
Sep 18

Ownership in AI-Assisted Everyday Tasks

The study investigates when work done with AI feels like one's own, using a qualitative survey where participants described tasks that felt owned versus not owned. Findings show that ownership depends on the collaboration process: people feel ownership when they lead, iterate, or rewrite, but disown work when merely approving AI suggestions. Ownership also extends to tasks where people set the vision but rely on AI for execution, yet loss of personal voice and lack of comprehension erode ownership, and willingness to disclose AI use is driven more by community norms than by pride.

By Megan Wei, Melanie Subbiah, Audrey Lee, Annya Dahmani, Dave Edwards, Helen Edwards, Ellie Pavlick
arXiv AI
Jul 21

Nonuniformity Principle in Human-AI Coworking

arXiv:2607. 16530v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: As generative AI is increasingly applied to automate multi-step and high-stake workflows, human judgment and involvement remain essential for ensuring the quality of AI-generated outputs.

By An Luo, Jie Ding
arXiv AI
Aug 26

AI Agents Push Humans Out of the Loop

AI agents are increasingly autonomous, posing significant risks that current designs hinder effective human oversight. The paper argues that oversight is degraded by both design choices and the cognitive decline of users who rely heavily on automation. It calls for prioritizing human cognitive needs in AI agent development, proposing design affordances and protocols to maintain critical judgment and counter skill atrophy.

By Margaret Mitchell, Avijit Ghosh, Samir Passi