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ARTICLE · 07 APRIL 2026

Governing AI That Acts, Part 2: Control In Name Only

Jones Walker LLP
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Part 1 of this series named three failure modes: automation bias, behavioral drift, and the audit illusion. And it closed with a question: can the humans responsible for agentic systems actually intervene when something goes wrong? This part is the answer.

United StatesTechnology
Jason Loring
Jason Loring

Key Takeaways

  • Organizations that have governance frameworks for AI content are systematically unprepared for governance of AI action. The failure modes are different, the oversight structures are different, and the legal exposure when things go wrong is significantly increased.
  • Automation bias is a governance problem, not a UX quirk. It requires structural intervention such as randomized sampling, adversarial audits, and defined stop protocols. Training memos telling people to "review carefully" are theater.
  • Behavioral drift is distinct from discrete software bugs. Agents may not fail visibly, but instead gradually pursue their objectives through unintended means. Detecting it requires tracking behavioral patterns over time, not auditing individual actions.

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