Working with Agentic `Teammates': When a New Organizational Actor Collides with the Human Ecosystem of Work

Rida Qadri; Remi Denton; Michael Madaio; Mahima Pushkarna; Leslie Lai; Sherry Moore; Michelle Chen Huebscher; Andrew Butcher; Ritom Sen; Hsiao-Yu Tung; Shaan Mathur; Yimeng Liu; Shibl Mourad; Noah Fiedel; Edward Grefenstette; Michael Terry

arXiv · 2609.29901

Working with Agentic `Teammates': When a New Organizational Actor Collides with the Human Ecosystem of Work

Rida Qadri·Remi Denton·Michael Madaio·Mahima Pushkarna·Leslie Lai·Sherry Moore·Michelle Chen Huebscher·Andrew Butcher·Ritom Sen·Hsiao-Yu Tung·Shaan Mathur·Yimeng Liu·Shibl Mourad·Noah Fiedel·Edward Grefenstette·Michael Terry

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Abstract

Enterprise AI is transitioning from single-user, reactive tools toward proactive, multi-user 'teammates,' but our empirical understanding of this transition is limited. In this paper, we present an in-situ qualitative study of a persistent, proactive AI agent 'teammate' deployed across multiple teams in a large technology company. Our findings reveal the boundaries of the human-agent workplace are actively in flux, triggering breakdowns and negotiations across: 1) tacit rules of collaborative human workflows, 2) the relational boundaries of this new non-human actor, and 3) the redistribution of trust and human agency. We use these early micro-negotiations as signals to chart a new research, design, and organizational agenda that intentionally preserves human agency in a workplace shared with non-human organizational actors.

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Rida Qadri, Remi Denton, Michael Madaio, Mahima Pushkarna, Leslie Lai, Sherry Moore, Michelle Chen Huebscher, Andrew Butcher, Ritom Sen, Hsiao-Yu Tung, Shaan Mathur, Yimeng Liu, Shibl Mourad, Noah Fiedel, Edward Grefenstette, Michael Terry. 2026-09-24. Working with Agentic `Teammates': When a New Organizational Actor Collides with the Human Ecosystem of Work. https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.29901

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