Magma forskning og viten
29(1)
p. 147-158
Doi:
https://doi.org/10.23865/magma.v29.1532
The emergence of agentic artificial intelligence (AI) agents—autonomous entities that pursue objectives, execute workflows, and interact across enterprise applications—marks the advent of a digital workforce operating alongside human employees. These systems promise efficiency and innovation, but challenge established assumptions about accountability, transparency, and control within organizations. In this article, we focus on internal corporate governance, understood as the structures, processes, and practices through which organizations direct, control, and assure operational activities. We examine how governance can adapt to the rise of agentic AI through the lens of the Three Lines Model of internal auditing. Our analysis addresses three questions: (1) How does the digital workforce transform internal governance challenges? (2) How must the roles of operational management, risk and compliance, and internal audit be reconceptualized? (3) What practical recommendations can be derived from applying the Three Lines Model to the governance of agentic AI? Our analysis indicates that effective governance of this future workforce requires sustained collaboration across the three lines, as the risks posed by agentic AI systems often span functional boundaries and cannot be managed in isolation. We propose strengthening collaboration in five domains: clarifying accountability, integrating AI agents into control environments, defining the scope of assurance, building cross-functional competencies, and aligning regulatory interpretations and responses. Further research is needed to understand how these mechanisms are institutionalized in practice and how internal governance systems must evolve in increasingly AI-enabled organizations.