# Working with Agentic `Teammates': When a New Organizational Actor Collides with the Human Ecosystem of Work

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.29901 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2609.29901/

## Key facts

- No citing papers in the map yet (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Placed in Social simulation and multi-agent debate, one of 16 directions in LLM agents and tool use.
- Builds on 21 of its 63 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 24 Sep 2026.

## Placed in

- LLM agents and tool use / [Social simulation and multi-agent debate](https://mlsanity.com/agents/social-simulation-and-multi-agent-debate/)

## Builds on (most cited first, 21 of 21)

- [Proactive Agent: Shifting LLM Agents from Reactive Responses to Active Assistance](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.12361/) (2024)
- [Sensing Wellbeing in the Workplace, Why and For Whom? Envisioning Impacts with Organizational Stakeholders](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.06794/) (2023)
- [MAP: Multi-user Personalization with Collaborative LLM-powered Agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.12757/) (2025)
- [Multi-User Large Language Model Agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2604.08567/) (2026)
- [CAMPHOR: Collaborative Agents for Multi-input Planning and High-Order Reasoning On Device](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.09407/) (2024)
- [Towards AI as Colleagues: Multi-Agent System Improves Structured Ideation Processes](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2510.23904/) (2025)
- [Humanlike AI Design Increases Anthropomorphism but Yields Divergent Outcomes on Engagement and Trust Globally](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2512.17898/) (2025)
- [From Future of Work to Future of Workers: Addressing Asymptomatic AI Harms for Dignified Human-AI Interaction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2601.21920/) (2026)
- [Cognitive Spillover in Human-AI Teams](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2407.17489/) (2024)
- [Social Conjuring: Multi-User Runtime Collaboration with AI in Building Virtual 3D Worlds](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.00274/) (2024)
- [When Your Boss Is an AI Bot: Exploring Opportunities and Risks of Manager Clone Agents in the Future Workplace](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2509.10993/) (2025)
- [How Tech Workers Contend with Hazards of Humanlikeness in Generative AI](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2512.19832/) (2025)
- [To LLM, or Not to LLM: How Designers and Developers Navigate LLMs as Tools or Teammates](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2604.15344/) (2026)
- [Beyond Anthropomorphism: a Spectrum of Interface Metaphors for LLMs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2603.04613/) (2026)
- [Collaborator or Assistant? How AI Coding Agents Partition Work Across Pull Request Lifecycles](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2605.08017/) (2026)
- [Adaptive Human-Agent Teaming: A Review of Empirical Studies from the Process Dynamics Perspective](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2504.10918/) (2025)
- [Choose Your Agent: Tradeoffs in Adopting AI Advisors, Coaches, and Delegates in Multi-Party Negotiation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2602.12089/) (2026)
- [AI as Teammate or Tool? A Review of Human-AI Interaction in Decision Support](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2602.15865/) (2026)
- [CoDesignAI: An AI-Enabled Multi-Agent, Multi-User System for Collaborative Urban Design at the Conceptual Stage](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2603.16008/) (2026)
- [What Types of Human-AI Teams Exist?](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2607.02198/) (2026)
- [The Social Cost of an AI Teammate: How an Artificial Teammate Reshapes Human-Human Communication in Small-Team Decision-Making](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2607.27179/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Enterprise AI is transitioning from single-user, reactive tools toward proactive, multi-user 'teammates,' but our empirical understanding of this transition is limited. In this paper, we present an in-situ qualitative study of a persistent, proactive AI agent 'teammate' deployed across multiple teams in a large technology company. Our findings reveal the boundaries of the human-agent workplace are actively in flux, triggering breakdowns and negotiations across: 1) tacit rules of collaborative human workflows, 2) the relational boundaries of this new non-human actor, and 3) the redistribution of trust and human agency. We use these early micro-negotiations as signals to chart a new research, design, and organizational agenda that intentionally preserves human agency in a workplace shared with non-human organizational actors.