AI agents—or AI that can make decisions—are one of the most powerful versions of artificial intelligence today. Gartner predicts that by 2028, up to 15% of decisions in the workplace will be made by these autonomous technologies.¹
But while this newest innovation offers incredible efficiency in business operations, it also brings many legal and ethical issues, especially in hiring and staffing. In this article, we explore the legal and ethical risks of AI agents in the workplace and provide suggestions on managing them.
AI Agents: What They Are and How They’re Reshaping the Workforce
AI agents, also called agentic AI or intelligent agents, are programs that can do tasks autonomously. Other AI models, like generative AI and AI assistants, are typically restricted by what they are programmed to do. On the other hand, AI agents can use various tools, make decisions, and achieve goals with multiple steps all on their own.
An example is when an AI agent receives a customer support ticket. Instead of just sending it to a human, it can understand the issue, find the right solution from the company’s information base, and send a complete response back to the customer—completely by itself.
Because of this power, agentic AI applications have been growing rapidly across industries. Here are a few examples:
- IT and Development: AI agents can make software development faster by automating tasks such as checking code for mistakes, fixing bugs, and writing and testing new features.
- Finance: AI agents can automate financial management by creating financial reports, billing, and tax-related tasks.
- Human Resources: AI agents can handle most recruitment tasks, from writing job descriptions, finding candidates, screening resumes, and even ranking them according to what the company is looking for.
- Sales: AI chatbots in sales improve customer experience by offering fast and smart replies to customer service requests and complaints.
- Supply Chain: AI agents can predict product demand and identify issues in manufacturing and deliveries.
What Could Go Wrong? Legal and Ethical Concerns with AI Agents in the Workforce
Agentic AI’s ability to make decisions is a game-changer. However, many issues arose when companies started using AI agents to enhance their operations. Here are some of the most important ones you should know:
Copyright Issues: Who Owns the Work that AI Agents Create?
As autonomous AI agents are used in HR and staffing work, they can help create products like:
- Job descriptions
- Employee handbooks
- Onboarding materials
- Performance reviews
- Hiring reports
- Data visualizations
Legal ownership of these materials can be unclear when created by AI. This means materials where AI agents are involved might not be legally protected by copyright laws.
What You Need to Know: The U.S. Copyright Office says that when it comes to materials created by AI, “human authorship and creativity” must be there.² The products must have a sense of originality so they can be legally owned by a person or a company.
Worker Classification: Who Qualifies as a Worker When AI Agents Oversee Tasks?
Most U.S. laws on wages and benefits only apply to regular employees, not independent contractors. Whether someone is an employee or not depends on how much control the company has over their work.
Some companies now use AI, especially agentic AI, to manage workers 24/7 without a human manager. This kind of “virtual control” can make it seem like the company isn’t directly managing workers, even though they still are. This can blur the line of legal responsibility.
This issue is important for staffing firms that hire contractors and for companies that have offshore independent workers.
What You Need to Know: The U.S. Department of Labor provides a guide that says employers must still comply with labor laws even though they use AI agents for management.³ For example, they must pay at least minimum wage and overtime for extra hours.
Wage and Hour Rights: Can AI Mess with Salaries?
Since AI agents are being used to track time, assign tasks, and even set wages, they can also impact how companies manage worker hours and salaries.
For example, in off-shore, remote, and on-demand work, it’s hard to tell when work actually starts and ends. So, workers might not get paid for all their time. Some systems can even reduce pay automatically if the worker is “off-task.”
What You Need to Know: The U.S. Department of Labor says “AI systems should not violate or undermine workers’…wage and hour rights.”⁴ This means that companies must not let using AI agents get in the way of treating employees fairly in terms of their salaries and work hours.
Discrimination in Recruitment: Can AI Agents Be Biased?
AI agents can make decisions and predict what users want because they study past data, which is often made by humans. This causes problems when AI agents help HR managers in screening candidates. Here are some examples:
- If a company mostly hired one kind of person before, say, young male software engineers, the AI might copy that and prefer similar people.
- Even if the AI doesn’t explicitly look at race or gender, it can still get clues from things like ZIP codes, names, or schools.
- AI can solidify what worked in the past. If hiring was biased before, the AI might keep doing it even more frequently.
What You Need to Know: The government says that employers must be wary of these kinds of effects. Fair and ethical human judgment must still be used alongside AI, especially when you’re using AI agents that can make decisions.
As Equal Employment Opportunity Commission chair Charlotte Burrows said, “We cannot let these tools become a high-tech pathway to discrimination.”5
How to Manage AI Agents in Your Workforce Strategy
The world of AI agents in businesses is still evolving. But here are suggestions to help you manage these legal and ethical issues:
1. Set Up Clear Rules on How Your Company Can Use AI Agents
Since AI agents can make poor decisions, it helps if your company creates official rules about your AI agent program. It can cover concerns like which tasks AI is allowed to handle, when to escalate situations to humans, and what to do when there are signs of discrimination. It’s also important that this policy is reviewed every now and then to adjust to changes in the AI industry.
2. Keep Logs of AI Activity
As AI agents work on your data, you can also record data about them. Track as much activity as you can, from how they make decisions to why they act in certain ways. This will help you to be accountable in case any legal or ethical issue comes up.
3. Include AI-Specific Clauses in Contracts
To protect both your company and workers, mention how AI agents a staffing contracts. Tackle important matters like ownership of materials, data privacy, enterprise AI, and final decision-makers. This not only keeps your company compliant but also builds trust among your employees.
4. Apply Consistent Standards for Offshore and Remote Teams
Since independent contractors can be a big issue for AI agents, a good rule of thumb is to maintain the same onshore standards for your offshore or remote employees. This prevents misclassification and ensures fair treatment under U.S. labor standards.
5. Require Human Reviews of Major AI Decisions
The one big solution to problems with AI decision-making will always be human judgment. To avoid unethical decisions in hiring, salaries, and even insurance claims, always make sure a human checks them. For instance, you can require managers to sign off on any big decisions made by your HR department.
Need help managing AI agents in your workforce? Raso360’s got you covered.
If you’re feeling overwhelmed with all these new concerns about gen AI, machine learning, and AI agents in business, Raso360 is here to help you boost your workforce with AI safely and efficiently.
Whether you’re trying to figure out how AI agents fit into your current workflows, navigating compliance risks, or scaling your offshore tech team, Raso360 can help. You’ll get access to experts who understand both enterprise technology and workforce strategy—so you can move faster, smarter, and with confidence.
Get in touch with us today and take the next step in making AI agents work for your business!
References:
- Coshow, Tom. “Intelligent Agents in AI Really Can Work Alone. Here’s How.” Gartner, 1 Oct. 2024, https://gcom.pdo.aws.gartner.com/en/articles/intelligent-agent-in-ai.
- Allison, Annie. “U.S. Copyright Office Issues Highly Anticipated Report on Copyrightability of AI-Generated Works.” Reuters, 3 Apr. 2025, www.reuters.com/legal/legalindustry/us-copyright-office-issues-highly-anticipated-report-copyrightability-ai-2025-04-02/.
- “DOL Issues Guidance on AI in the Workplace.” CUPA-HR, 8 May 2024, www.cupahr.org/blog/dol-issues-guidance-on-the-use-of-ai-in-the-workplace-2024-05-08-2/.
- Kelley, Bradford J., Alice Wang, and Sean O’Brien. “DOL Issues Artificial Intelligence Principles.” Littler Mendelson, 21 May 2024, www.littler.com/news-analysis/asap/dol-issues-artificial-intelligence-principles.
- Johnson, Khari. “Feds Warn Employers Against Discriminatory Hiring Algorithms.” Wired, 16 May 2022, www.wired.com/story/ai-hiring-bias-doj-eecc-guidance/.
