Agentic Displacement in Second Language Writing: The Acquisitional Consequences of Delegating Writing to Autonomous AI Browsers

Abstract

Autonomous AI browsers such as Perplexity Comet and Copilot Mode in Microsoft Edge can receive a writing assignment, draft a response, and submit it with little language produced by the learner. To explain what this means for second language (L2) writing, this conceptual paper introduces the term agentic displacement. Full delegation transfers planning, writing, and revision to the agent, removing opportunities for the learner to produce language and regulate the writing process. The paper argues that this loss may limit language development. Delegation is a continuum; the paper traces its extreme, full replacement, through production-based accounts of acquisition. No empirical data are reported; the paper offers a framework, five testable propositions, and three dimensions of teacher practice: recognizing displacement, auditing tasks for delegability, and using pedagogical judgment to recover the learning a task was meant to produce. The central risk is developmental, not only ethical or procedural.