Governing Delegation to Generative Artificial Intelligence: Human Direction, Work-Related Orientation, and Modes of Use
When people use AI for work versus play, how they direct it changes
When people shift from personal to work tasks, they plan their AI instructions more carefully upfront rather than fixing outputs as they go. The effect is stronger on direct API use than on Claude.ai, suggesting that different interfaces pull people toward different ways of controlling AI — planned direction versus real-time course correction.
As AI becomes embedded in workplaces, managers and organizations need to understand that the same tool behaves differently depending on how people access it. Work contexts naturally push people toward specifying tasks clearly before execution, while chat interfaces encourage tinkering and feedback loops. This shapes what traces of human control remain in AI decisions — a critical issue for accountability, audits, and knowing who is really responsible when something goes wrong.