Understanding the true costs of Al agent adoption

THIRTY percent reduction in manual work, zero human mistakes, realised in weeks. Those were the claims from a vice president of engineering at a leading global software company I spoke with recently about their AI deployments in financial services. Impressive? Sure. But as I told her, I'm starting to question whether deriving unprecedented cost efficiencies and reducing human error are the holy grail we think they are.

- ANDILE MASUKU

This sense has been fed by a sobering warning from Meredith Whittaker, the president of Signal Messenger, in an on-stage fireside chat at South by Southwest (SXSW) a couple of months ago.

With global companies like Shopify, Fiverr, and Microsoft making AI usage mandatory for employees across all roles and levels, Whittaker's caution feels particularly urgent. In summary: Beware the allure of handing unprecedented control to AI agents without discernment.

Signal standard

If you're wondering why Whittaker's voice carries weight on these matters, consider what Signal represents. Unlike WhatsApp or Telegram, Signal is a non-profit, open source messaging service that has built its entire existence around one principle: protecting user privacy, apparently without compromise.

No ads, no data harvesting, no backdoors, no shareholders demand-ing growth at any cost. The platform is widely endorsed and used by journalists, activists, and professionals at privacy-conscious organisations and agencies globally.

This isn't just idealistic posturing. Signal's model illuminates the profound challenges of maintaining ethical practices when commercial incentives drive technology adoption. As Whittaker put it at the SXSW conversation: "You can't afford to risk that kind of pressure in an ecosystem where profit is created via practices that are diametrically opposed to what you stand for."

I'm reminded of a mate who consults to the UK banking industry on data governance and security. Several years ago, he left WhatsApp entirely. When I asked why, his response was telling: "When you understand how financial surveillance actually works, you make different choices about what platforms you trust." That's the thing about privacy: once you truly grasp what's at stake, convenience starts feeling less convenient.

Agent access problem