Agency Erosion
Gradual loss of human decision-making authority as agents take over more workflow without checkpoints.
Agency Erosion happens slowly. First, the agent makes low-stakes decisions: variable names, formatting, file organization. Then it starts making medium-stakes decisions: library choices, API design patterns, error handling strategies. Eventually, it's making high-stakes decisions: architecture, security configurations, deployment strategies — and the human has become accustomed to accepting agent decisions without review. The human's role has shifted from decision-maker to approver, and eventually to bystander. The erosion is gradual enough that neither party notices until the human realizes they're no longer driving.
More in Human-Agent Relationship
Human-Code Divergence
The gap created between a user and their codebase when an agent mediates all development.
Cognitive Load
The mental burden placed on the human when working with AI systems.
Skill Atrophy
Decay of human technical skills from prolonged delegation to agents.
Automation Dependency
Reliance on agents to the point where the human can't perform the task without them.
Trust Without Verification
Accepting agent output without review — a precondition for Execution Hallucination going undetected.
Confidence Decay
The gradual erosion of user trust as a system repeatedly loses context, hallucinates, or fails to follow through.
Capability Illusion
The user believes the AI can do more than it actually can, leading to over-delegation and undetected failures.
Learned Helplessness
The user stops attempting tasks they could do because the agent is "supposed to handle it."