Trust in the age of agents

Trust in the age of agents

From The McKinsey Podcast by McKinsey & Company

March 5, 2026 · 29 min

About this episode

Rich Isenberg discusses how leaders can scale AI safely and build trust in autonomous systems.

Many leaders can get agentic pilots rolling—but realizing ROI can mean activating thousands of AI agents enterprise-wide. Is your organization ready? “Agency isn’t a feature—it’s a transfer of decision rights,” says McKinsey Partner Rich Isenberg . “The question shifts from ‘Is the model accurate?’ to ‘Who’s accountable when the system acts?’” On this episode of The McKinsey Podcast , Isenberg joins Global Editorial Director Lucia Rahilly to explore how leaders can scale AI safely, mitigate risk for autonomous systems, and build the trust required to make innovation stick. Theme music composed, performed, and produced by Joy Ngiaw. See www.mckinsey.com/privacy-policy for privacy information

People in this episode

Host: Lucia Rahilly

Guest: Rich Isenberg

Topics covered

  • AI
  • trust
  • leadership
  • autonomous systems
  • risk management

Keywords

  • AI agents
  • decision rights
  • accountability
  • innovation
  • risk mitigation

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: McKinsey & Company

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