One of the most common questions organizations struggle to answer is simple: who owns the agent.
Ownership is often assumed during development but becomes unclear after deployment. Teams change. Systems evolve. Agents persist.
Without explicit ownership, there is no authority to approve changes, no accountability when behavior drifts, and no clear decision maker when incidents occur.
Accountability must be defined at creation and maintained throughout the agent’s lifecycle. This includes authority over updates, responsibility for monitoring, and the power to deactivate or retire the agent when necessary.
USA-ADL™ treats ownership as a governance requirement, not an administrative detail. Ownership is assigned, documented, audited, and enforced across time.
This approach does not slow delivery. It prevents ambiguity, which is one of the most expensive risks in autonomous systems.
