What to Delegate, What to Preserve: Human Preferences for Agentic AI Across Everyday Life and Work

Sarah Wheeler, Veronica Rammouz, Yaoyao Qian, Zexuan Liu, Mengyi Wei +3

AI agents can execute multi-step tasks on users' behalf, yet the boundaries of acceptable delegation remain unclear. We report a scenario-based survey of 289 U.S. adults with prior AI experience covering 45 use cases across nine life domains. Each respondent evaluated one scenario per domain, producing repeated measures of automation preference, trust, collaboration, AI leadership, privacy concern, and willingness to pay. Automation preferences varied substantially across domains. Generalized estimating equation models showed that greater trust in the AI agent, desired AI leadership, prior task-specific AI use, and anticipated financial savings were associated with greater automation preference. In contrast, concerns that automation would reduce personal fulfillment predicted lower automation preference. Open-ended responses further revealed a preference for bounded autonomy, with participants often favoring substantial AI execution while retaining human involvement, oversight, or final authority. We argue that delegation is best understood as a configuration of execution, collaboration, leadership, and authority.