Imagine stepping into a leadership role where your team consists of two human employees and three AI agents. You are no longer just managing people — you are managing a hybrid workforce where some team members need salaries, coffee breaks, and motivation, while others simply require a well-structured prompt and computational power.
As a manager, how would you distribute work? How do humans and AI collaborate effectively? And what happens when AI agents start influencing team dynamics in unexpected ways?
Let’s explore what it might be like to manage a mixed team of humans and AI agents and the challenges that arise.
1. Task Assignment: Who Does What?
As a manager, the first question is: How do you assign tasks when some team members are AI?
- Humans excel at creative problem-solving, emotional intelligence, stakeholder communication, and strategic thinking. They can handle high-level decision-making, brainstorming, and customer relationships.
- AI agents are best for data processing, automation, coding assistance, and knowledge retrieval. They don’t get tired and can work on repetitive, logic-based tasks at scale.
A practical approach might be:
- Assign analytical and repetitive tasks to AI (e.g., generating reports, writing test cases, summarizing research).
- Assign decision-making and creative tasks to humans (e.g., designing new features, negotiating with stakeholders, conducting user research).
- Some tasks can be done in collaboration — for instance, a human can define a new feature while an AI agent generates possible implementation plans.
Challenge: Will humans feel that AI is taking away their meaningful work? How do you keep morale high?
2. Collaboration: How Do Humans and AI Work Together?
Collaboration in a hybrid team will require new workflows and adapted communication styles.
AI as a Supporting Role, Not a Competitor
Humans may be skeptical of AI agents, especially if they see them as competition. To build trust, AI should be positioned as a supporting tool rather than a replacement.
Example Workflow:
- The human team member outlines a problem.
- AI agent scans past data and provides insights.
- Humans decide on the final course of action and communicate it to stakeholders.
This ensures that AI enhances human decision-making rather than replacing it.
Communication Between AI and Humans
Should AI agents use Slack, email, or voice communication? Should they have distinct personalities, or should they remain purely functional? These choices will define how well the team interacts.
AI can be:
- Fully autonomous, making suggestions on their own.
- Reactive, responding only when asked.
- Conversational, engaging in discussions like another team member.
Challenge: If AI agents become too dominant, will human employees feel ignored or undervalued?
3. Who Should Be the Product Owner: A Human or an AI?
If a team consists of both humans and AI agents, who should play the role of Product Owner — the person (or entity) that sets priorities and defines requirements?
Arguments for a Human Product Owner:
- ✅ Humans understand user needs better and can empathize with customers.
- ✅ They can balance long-term strategy and business goals.
- ✅ They can manage stakeholder relationships, which AI cannot yet do effectively.
Arguments for an AI Product Owner:
- 🤖 AI can process massive amounts of data instantly and make purely data-driven decisions.
- 🤖 It has no personal biases or emotional influences.
- 🤖 It can adapt and optimize project timelines more efficiently.
Potential Conflict: Will human employees trust an AI-led roadmap, or will they resist being directed by a machine?
4. Salary & Compensation: Will Humans Feel It’s Unfair?
A unique challenge in managing a mixed team is compensation. AI agents don’t require salaries, bonuses, or benefits. They don’t negotiate for raises. But humans do.
Potential Issues:
- Humans may feel resentful if AI contributes significantly but costs the company nothing.
- Should AI-generated output be considered intellectual property? If an AI writes a document, does the human team take credit for it?
- Can AI agents “earn” budget for upgrades or better computational resources? If AI improves itself, should it be rewarded in some way?
One possible solution is “AI cost allocation”, where companies budget for AI resources similarly to employee salaries. But how fair is that for human workers?
Challenge: Can a company justify paying human employees more when AI is doing an increasing amount of the work?
5. Do AI Agents Need One-on-Ones?
One of the key responsibilities of a manager is conducting one-on-one meetings with employees to discuss growth, challenges, and feedback.
But what about AI agents? Should a manager schedule performance reviews for AI?
- AI agents can provide self-assessments based on their efficiency and task completion rates.
- Managers may need to tune AI models and improve prompt engineering for better results.
- AI may require updates, retraining, or resource adjustments, similar to how employees need coaching and development.
However, AI lacks emotions. It doesn’t feel burnout, frustration, or ambition. So while managers may need to “optimize” AI agents, they won’t have to worry about motivation or morale.
Future Thought: If AI evolves to simulate emotions, will managers need to treat them like humans in one-on-ones?
Conclusion: Managing a Future Hybrid Team
Managing a team of humans and AI agents presents a completely new set of challenges:
- ✅ Assigning tasks fairly while keeping human employees engaged.
- ✅ Designing workflows where AI supports humans, rather than replaces them.
- ✅ Deciding whether leadership should be human-driven or AI-led.
- ✅ Handling potential resentment around salaries and contributions.
- ✅ Redefining managerial responsibilities, including AI maintenance and optimization.
As AI becomes more integrated into the workplace, managers will need to develop new skills — not just technical ones, but also ethical and strategic thinking about how humans and AI coexist.
What do you think? Would you be comfortable leading a team with AI agents? How would you balance human and AI contributions? Let’s discuss! 🚀
Hey, I’m Mikel. You can read more of my stories here.
