— OCTOBER 18TH, 2026 —

ACCOUNTABILITY STAYS WITH HUMANS

I was reading a Wall Street Journal column recently about what happens when AI systems claim they’re sentient. I often read with a pen, and one of the notes I wrote in the margin was this: What people often mean by “sentient” is free will. And free will without stakes is an idea beyond us.

Whatever we believe about AI, there's a question founders and CEOs need to answer: As we give AI agents more responsibility inside our companies, who's accountable for what they do?

An agent can perform tasks, make decisions within defined boundaries, and take action on your company’s behalf. But if it takes an action you didn’t anticipate, the agent can’t own the consequences of what happened. Someone inside your company still has to be accountable for the result.

Read more in Who’s Accountable for Your AI Agents?

That’s why I believe every agent should have one accountable human. That person should understand what the agent is there to do, what it can access, where its authority ends, and how to stop or modify it when needed.

As you give AI more responsibility, are you equally clear about who remains accountable?

PERSPECTIVES

“But if everyone is accountable for AI governance, is anyone truly accountable?" — Phaedra Boinodiris, Global Lead of IBM Consulting's Responsible AI Practice

MARK MY WORDS

Earlier this month, we had the entire Ninety team together, and we spent a good amount of time talking about AI agents and accountability.

In the newsletter that week, I talked about how to lead AI adoption throughout your company. Looking back, I don’t think I made the distinction between responsibility and accountability clear enough. It’s an important one, especially as we give agents more responsibility for what’s happening inside our companies.

Put the agent on your Org Chart under the person who owns it. Make the accountability explicit. Then give the agent the resources and direction it needs to do its job well.

No agent without one accountable human. That’s the standard.

ON THE CALENDAR

Annual Planning Webinar

October 28 | 3 p.m. ET | Live Webinar

An annual plan only helps if your team uses it. Join Christine Watts, Ninety’s Head of Professional Services, to learn how to connect your 1-year goals to your quarterly priorities so you can keep your plan on track throughout 2027.

[Save Your Seat]

ONE MORE FOR THE ROAD

In case you missed it, here’s more from Founder’s Framework:

Where AI Agents Belong in Your Company (And Where They Don’t)

Before deciding who’s accountable for an agent, you need to decide whether the work belongs with an agent in the first place.

In this article, I walk through seven questions to help you evaluate your existing processes, understand the consequences of getting something wrong, and decide where human judgment should stay involved.

[Read Now]

You can blame it on the rain, but you can’t blame it on your AI agent. Accountability still belongs to us.