Atlassian CEO Mike Cannon-Brookes says employees can't blame ChatGPT for mistakes at work | Trending
Atlassian co-founder and CEO Mike Cannon-Brookes says employees should not blame artificial intelligence for mistakes they make at work. He believes people must take responsibility for work done with AI tools, even when an automated AI agent handles most of the task.
“That’s ChatGPT on behalf of Mike. Like, that’s Mike using ChatGPT. It’s not ChatGPT doing it,” Cannon-Brookes told Fortune during the Singapore Grand Prix. “The accountability is with Mike. It has to be with the end user, ultimately.”
AI agents need a clear identity
His comments come as more companies start using AI agents that can edit documents, manage tasks and access workplace information.
On October 6, Atlassian introduced its Agentic Multiplayer Protocol (AMP). It is designed to make AI agents easy to identify as members of workplace teams. The system gives each agent its own identity and permissions, while making it possible to trace its work back to the human user.
“You have to be able to see who did what when,” Cannon-Brookes said. He argued that changes made with AI should be just as easy to track as edits made by colleagues.
Concerns over workplace security
Cannon-Brookes also warned that AI tools designed for everyday consumers cannot simply be moved into offices, where people often share private and confidential information.
“If you’re making something on Muse, it’s probably just for you,” he told Fortune. “In a workplace, there’s a lot of conversation around permissions, security, and compliance.”
He gave an example of employees using internal documents to create charts. These charts could accidentally reveal information that should be kept private if they were shared with people who could not access the original files.
He also believes that complicated interfaces stop workers from getting the most out of AI. “AI can do amazing, crazily super-powerful things. Most people do very basic things because of the interface,” he said. “The experience is very poor.”
Atlassian's growing AI ambitions
The Australian software company, best known for Jira and Confluence, launched its AI assistant Rovo in 2024. The tool connects workplace knowledge, projects and software tools.
Atlassian's latest approach aims to let employees work across services such as Figma, Codex and Claude while keeping track of work created by AI.
Atlassian reported revenue of about $1.8 billion for the quarter that ended June 30, beating analysts' expectations, according to Reuters. In March, the company also announced plans to cut around 1,600 jobs, or about 10% of its workforce, as it shifted investment towards AI and business customers.