Thursday 21 May 2026 5:34 am  |  Updated:  Wednesday 20 May 2026 12:41 pm

Who is accountable when AI gets it wrong?

By: Paul Loftus

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AI produces outputs that vary with each interaction and operates across systems at a pace no human oversight function can match. So who’s accountable when it goes wrong, asks Paul Loftus

When an automated system makes a decision that harms a customer, there is usually a clear legal answer to the question of who is responsible. By extension, under the UK’s Senior Managers and Certification Regime, a named individual remains legally accountable for outcomes in their area, however those outcomes are produced.

What is less clear is how that individual meaningfully discharges that responsibility when the system producing the outcome behaves differently from anything that has come before. Unlike previous systems, generative and agentic AI produces........

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