AI Shifting the Dynamics of Agency

Abstract How does Agentic AI challenge our assumptions about agency, how people navigate their agency, and how we design for it? Agency or autonomy are often considered an entity that a person (or machine) can ‘have’ and others can control or manipulate, but this narrow view of autonomy is insufficient for examining our myriad relations to algorithmic systems, as Savolainen & Ruckenstein (2022) describe. Agentic AI can make decisions, take actions, and even learn on its own to achieve specific goals, adapting to changing circumstances without needing constant direction. This moves beyond traditional ideas of AI as mere tools or collaborative partners. Ethnographers are uniquely positioned to analyze how people navigate and negotiate their agency in relation to AI‐driven technologies, as well as the business, engineering, design, and semiotic spaces of agentic AI development. By studying everyday interactions, they uncover the subtle strategies individuals use to maintain agency in an increasingly automated world.