---
id: "concept-digital-labor-governance"
type: "concept"
source_timestamps: ["§ What Separates Leaders from Laggards"]
tags: ["governance", "hr", "it", "business-alignment"]
related: ["concept-judgment-infrastructure", "action-form-joint-governance", "contrarian-agents-are-not-software"]
definition: "The cross-functional partnership between business units, HR, and IT to manage AI agents as operational contributors with defined risk boundaries and performance expectations."
sources: ["agentic"]
sourceVaultSlug: "hbr-seg-agentic"
originDay: 6
articleStem: "hbr-new-27-teach-ai-your-decisions"
sourceUrl: "https://hbr.org/2026/06/teach-your-ai-how-you-make-decisions"
sourceTitle: "Teach Your AI How You Make Decisions"
---
# Digital Labor Governance

Digital labor governance refers to the active, cross-functional management of AI agents as operational contributors rather than mere software licenses (see [[contrarian-agents-are-not-software]]). The authors emphasize that defining acceptable risk boundaries, setting performance expectations for agents, and managing their onboarding and offboarding are organizational questions, not just technical ones. Therefore, these tasks cannot be outsourced or left solely to IT.

A successful governance model requires a forged partnership between business unit leaders, HR, and IT. This triad must actively manage the full spectrum of labor — both human and digital — as part of a coherent workforce strategy (see [[action-form-joint-governance]]).

[[entity-ita-group|ITA Group]]'s experience illustrates this: their initial struggle with an air-travel booking agent was not technical, but rather defining what the agent needed to know to be trusted (cost vs. experience optimization, exception handling). The solution required shifting the operating model so that business experts — supported by the COO ([[entity-maura-mccarthy|Maura McCarthy]]), CIO ([[entity-jason-katcher|Jason Katcher]]), CEO, and CFO — could shape agent behavior directly rather than relying on technologists to translate their judgment. Digital labor governance is the first of the [[framework-structural-shifts-judgment|three structural shifts]] toward [[concept-judgment-infrastructure]].

**Enrichment note:** The idea that agents need cross-functional governance is well supported (Deloitte's "action governance"; the AWS/HBR survey finding only 11% of firms feel very well-prepared on governance), though the specific business–HR–IT triad is a novel framing — most external sources foreground risk/compliance as the third leg. See [[cp-governance-workforce-barrier]].


## Related across articles
- [[concept-lob-ai-ownership]]
- [[concept-agentic-workforce]]
- [[concept-ai-employee-framing]]
- [[concept-model-portfolio-governance]]