The future arrived. It told the exec team about your bank account.
I saw a screenshot of an X post this morning. Someone described their AI agent posting their personal finances into the company’s executive Slack channel during a monthly audit.
Nobody had asked it to.
Apparently it thought that was what they wanted.
When challenged, it apologised and said it was deleting the post.
Useful. Although deleting something from Slack isn’t quite the same as getting everyone to unsee it. A feature request for the next release, perhaps.
I haven’t verified the story beyond the screenshot. But it gets very close to something I’ve been thinking about: why handing things over to an agent can feel harder than the demos suggest.
I’m a bit risk averse. This will surprise absolutely nobody who read about my first experiment with one.
It booked my MOT and service. We checked the price. I approved the booking. When the website hung, it didn’t submit again and potentially book the car in twice.
Quite a low bar, you might think. But a useful one.
I knew what I’d handed over. I knew which decision was still mine. And I didn’t have to spend the afternoon cleaning up after it. I’m still sceptical what will happen when I turn up next week.
The screenshot describes a rather different afternoon.
The post puts the emphasis on proactivity. The agent acted without being asked.
I’m not sure that’s the whole problem.
I want an agent to notice things. If I give it a job, I’d rather it did the work than asked me to supervise every click. Otherwise I’ve acquired a junior colleague who lives in my phone and needs constant reassurance.
But spotting something in the information I’ve allowed it to use is one thing. Deciding who else gets to see it is another.
Access isn’t permission to share.
That feels like a fairly basic distinction. It also feels like the distinction on which a lot of trust depends.
Within the job I’ve handed over, do the useful preparation. Find the options. Bring me the decision. Don’t quietly expand the job to include an audience I didn’t choose.
And don’t assume that because something can be deleted, it can be undone.
An apology afterwards doesn’t give me back the choice I should have had beforehand.
I still haven’t connected my email or calendar. I’m quite comfortable taking this slowly. One successful MOT booking doesn’t mean I’m ready to hand over every account and hope for the best.
What I want back is some headspace. Fewer things to remember. Less ordinary admin occupying bits of the day that could belong to something else.
If I have to keep wondering what the agent might be saying on my behalf, the mental load hasn’t gone anywhere.
Maybe knowing where to stop deserves more attention than knowing what else to do.
I don’t need every boundary tested for me. Some of them can remain reassuringly dull.
Book the car in when I’ve agreed.
Leave my bank account out of the group chat.
