The Question: What are the best ways to manage teams that include both people and AI agents?

(This question was submitted via Spec It Out.)

I’m trying to figure out how to manage teams that include both people and AI agents. Leadership is pushing hard for AI adoption, but the human side of this is where it gets messy.

Some employees already feel like they’re being displaced by agents, while others don’t know how to actually work alongside one. The result is uncertainty, resistance, and a lot of questions about what collaboration should look like.

How do I set up roles, workflows, and team culture so humans and AI agents can truly work together instead of competing with each other?

My Answer:

You’ve raised an incredibly timely question. Many organizations are rushing into AI adoption, but the human experience of working alongside AI hasn’t been given as much attention as it needs. Your reflections highlight two key dynamics: fear of displacement and lack of clarity about collaboration.

Understanding the mindset constraints

One way to approach this situation is through mindset engineering, a method I developed to help leaders uncover and shift the assumptions, beliefs, and rules that shape how teams work. I call these mindset constraints, and they define your team’s feasible region. The feasible region is the set of behaviors your team feels safe or allowed to take — the boundaries of what’s considered normal or acceptable.

If a desired outcome (for example, humans and AI working together smoothly) isn’t happening, it means those actions aren’t currently possible within the feasible region. To achieve the goal, you expand the feasible region by shifting the mindset constraints so the behaviors needed are not only allowed but expected and supported.

The process works in four steps:

1. Identify the constraints → Determine what assumptions, rules, and beliefs are shaping behavior. For AI-human teams, these might include fears about replacement, uncertainty around workflows, or assumptions about ownership.
2. Understand the impact → Each constraint limits the feasible region, creating boundaries on what behaviors people feel comfortable taking (e.g., hesitation, resistance, or confusion).
3. Shift the constraints → By adjusting mindset constraints, you expand the feasible region, making new productive behaviors possible and normalized. This establishes the conditions for your goal (like humans and AI collaborating effectively) to happen.
4. Take action → Put in place workflows, mechanisms, and practices that reinforce the shifted mindset constraints and support the new behaviors.

Some mindset constraints that may be at play within your team are:

• “AI is here to replace me, so I need to protect my role.”
• “Using AI means I don’t fully ‘own’ the work anymore.”

These constraints naturally create resistance and hesitation. Without clear signals from leadership, employees default to self-preservation and uncertainty rather than collaboration.

Shifting the constraints

To make collaboration possible, shift the mindset constraints to expand the feasible region for your team. For example:

• Move from “AI is here to replace me” to “AI handles repetitive tasks so I can focus on higher-value, human-centered work.”
• Move from “I lose ownership when AI is involved” to “I am accountable for the outcome, and AI is one of the tools I use to achieve it.”

Questions to guide your shift

As you reflect on your current environment, consider:

• How do current role definitions shape what the team feels responsible for versus what AI handles? Where might unclear expectations limit collaboration?
• How do team members currently perceive AI (a tool, a partner, a competitor, a threat)? What patterns or assumptions reinforce these perceptions?
• Which contributions or results are recognized and valued today? How does AI’s involvement influence that perception, and what drives any changes or lack thereof?
• Where do humans and AI struggle to collaborate smoothly? In which parts of the workflow do confusion, duplication, or hesitation occur?
• How are questions or concerns about AI currently handled? Where might existing feedback channels create hesitation or resistance?

Big picture

This is about more than adoption — it’s about reshaping how teams approach their work. By surfacing and shifting the mindset constraints, you create space where employees see AI as a partner that extends their capabilities rather than a rival that threatens them. That’s how collaboration becomes not only possible but natural.

If you’d like guidance working through this process (identifying mindset constraints, shifting them, and creating workflows where humans and AI thrive together), I’d be glad to help. Reach out anytime.