Extract from Olga V. Mack’s article, “Who Owns The Rules For An AI Agent?”
Agentic commerce will not eliminate internal governance. It will make vague governance harder to hide.
A company deploys an AI agent to manage software purchases. Procurement tells it to reduce costs. The business tells it to close quickly. Security requires specific protections. Finance imposes spending limits. Legal prohibits certain contractual terms.
Whose instruction controls?
For a human employee, the answer is often worked out through meetings, relationships, experience, and occasional escalation. People recognize conflicts, negotiate internally, and locate someone with enough authority to make the final decision.
