---
id: "entity-alex-3"
type: "entity"
entityType: "other"
canonicalName: "ALEX-3"
aliases: ["Alex", "ALEX-3 persona"]
source_timestamps: ["§ The Effects of Humanizing AI"]
tags: ["experiment-design"]
related: ["concept-ai-employee-framing"]
sources: ["agentic"]
sourceVaultSlug: "hbr-seg-agentic"
originDay: 6
articleStem: "hbr-ext-16-dont-treat-agents-like-employees"
sourceUrl: "https://hbr.org/2026/05/research-why-you-shouldnt-treat-ai-agents-like-employees"
sourceTitle: "Research: Why You Shouldn’t Treat AI Agents Like Employees"
---
# ALEX-3

**Entity type:** Other (experimental persona / stimulus).

ALEX-3 is the persona used in the researchers' **randomized experiment** to represent an *"AI employee on their team."* It was tested against two contrasting conditions:
- **"an AI tool"** (software-automation framing), and
- **"Alex"** (a human employee).

This three-way design measured how anthropomorphic framing (see [[concept-ai-employee-framing]]) alters managerial review behavior, accountability, and error detection — producing the results in [[claim-accountability-shift-d6]], [[claim-escalation-increase]], and [[claim-quality-control-decline]]. ALEX-3 is the operational instrument that isolates the *framing* variable from the underlying technology.