The set of arrangements for directing an organisation, overseeing it and accounting for it: who steers, who checks, who may intervene. In 2026 the question is shifting from people to systems: who owns an AI agent that takes decisions on its own?
The number of AI agents is growing fast, but Gartner expects over four in ten agent projects to be cancelled by the end of 2027 because of rising costs and unclear value. Vendors, meanwhile, are sticking the agent label on existing products. The value goes to companies that manage agents as a single programme.
Publications per month for Agent-washing and the cost and value of agent projects
Closures in European chemicals have risen sixfold since 2022, and the Netherlands accounts for a fifth of the capacity announced, more than twice its share of turnover. On an integrated cluster, one company's exit hits its neighbours directly. The Dutch government and Chemelot are therefore working with a cluster plan.
Publications per month for European chemical closures and cooperation within industrial clusters
The AZWA obliges municipalities and health insurers in 38 regions to agree a joint work agenda. The governance of these networks is not yet in place: RIVM finds no central governance in over 60 per cent of IZA regions, and Groningen found no structure able to grow with them in any of 142 initiatives.
Publications per month for Governing regional care networks and the AZWA work agenda
The share of developers willing to leave application logic to AI rose from 18 to 50 per cent in a year. Measuring the return no longer works: METR cannot find enough developers still willing to work without AI, and 66 per cent feel metrics miss their contribution.
Publications per month for AI in software development and the trouble with measuring productivity
Over six in ten Dutch teachers want a period of calm before the next round of innovation, more than in most other TALIS countries. ROA and the Inspectorate blame an accumulation of rules and temporary schemes, which leaves schools unable to implement new plans properly.
Publications per month for Change fatigue and policy overload in Dutch education
In more and more organisations AI agents carry out real steps in the work and will gain more autonomy in the coming years, while almost nobody has set up the governance: who owns the agent, what it may do without a check, who switches it off. That is a structural question for line management, not an IT question.
Publications per month for Who is the agent's boss? Ownership, mandate and control of AI agents
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