As AI Scales Inside Enterprises, Companies Grapple With Who's Actually Responsible

The question of AI accountability has long felt abstract—a philosophical debate for ethicists and regulators. But as companies like ServiceNow embed AI agents directly into mission-critical processes like employee onboarding and customer workflows, the question has become urgently concrete: When an AI system makes a mistake that affects customers or employees, who bears responsibility? In 2018, the fatal Uber self-driving accident in Tempe, Arizona illustrated the stakes: investigators struggled to assign blame among the safety driver, engineers, corporate leadership, and regulators. That ambiguity no longer works as enterprises automate at scale. ServiceNow's appointment of Jacqui Canney as chief people and AI enablement officer signals a broader organizational shift—companies are now building explicit accountability structures into their AI deployment strategies, treating governance as a precondition rather than an afterthought.