Have you ever used chatgpt to draft work emails? Perhaps to summarise reports, explore topics, or analyze data in a spreadsheet? If so, you are certainly not alone.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools are rapidly transforming the world of work. According to a global survey of over 32,000 workers in 47 countries released today, 58% of employees intentionally use AI in their workplaces, with a third using weekly.
Most employees who use it say they have achieved some real productivity and performance benefits by adopting AI tools.
However, they use AI in extremely dangerous ways, such as uploading sensitive information to public tools, relying on AI answers without checking them, or hiding their use.
It ensures that policies, training and governance regarding the responsible use of AI are urgently needed and that strengthens how the work is done.
Our research
It surveyed 32,352 employees from 47 countries, covering all geographical regions and occupational groups around the world.
Most employees report performance benefits from AI adoption in the workplace. These include the following improvements:
- Efficiency (67%)
- Information access (61%)
- Innovation (59%)
- Work quality (58%).
These findings reflect prior research showing that AI can promote increased productivity for employees and organizations.
We've found that generic generation AI tools such as ChatGpt are the most widely used. Approximately 70% of employees rely on free public tools rather than employer-provided AI solutions (42%).
However, almost half of employees surveyed using AI say they did so in a way that is considered inappropriate (47%) (63%) see other employees using AI inappropriately.
Tada Images/Shutterstock
Confidential Information
One of the key concerns surrounding AI tools in the workplace is handling sensitive corporate information, such as financial, sales, and customer information.
Almost half (48%) of employees uploaded sensitive company or customer information to public generation AI tools, with 44% admitting that they used AI in the workplace in a way that violates organizational policies.
This is in line with other studies showing that 27% of content employees put in AI tools are sensitive.
Check your answer
The use of AI's self-satisfaction is also widespread, with 66% of respondents saying they rely on AI output without ratings. In that case, it is not surprising that a majority (56%) made mistakes in their work due to AI.
Younger employees (ages 18-34) are more likely to engage in inappropriate and satisfactory use than older employees (ages 35 and above).
This poses serious risks to the organization and its employees. Such mistakes have already led to well-documented cases of economic loss, reputational damage and privacy invasion.
Approximately one-third of employees (35%) say that using AI tools in the workplace has increased privacy and compliance risks.
Using “Shadow” AI
Risks become even more challenging if employees are not transparent about how they use AI.
It was found that most employees used AI (61%), presented AI-generated content as their own (55%), and avoided using AI tools without knowing whether it was permitted or not (66%).
This invisible or “Shadow AI” use not only exacerbates risk, but also severely hinders an organization's ability to detect, manage and mitigate risk.
Lack of training, guidance and governance appears to encourage this use of self-satisfaction. Despite their prevalence, a third of employees (34%) say that their organizations have policies that guide the use of generated AI tools.
The pressure to hire AI is fearful that half of employees are afraid they will be left behind if they are not.
Andrey_Popov/Shutterstock
Better literacy and monitoring
Collectively, our findings reveal the urgent need for organizations to guide and manage how employees use them in their daily work. Addressing this requires a proactive and intentional approach.
It is important to invest in responsible AI training and develop AI literacy for employees. Modeling also predicts whether self-reported AI literacy, including training, knowledge, and effectiveness, will not only adopt AI tools, but also be critically involved.
This includes how well you validate the output of the tool and consider limits before making a decision.
PeopleImages.com-Yuri A/Shutterstock
We found that AI literacy is also associated with increased trust in AI use in the workplace and the performance benefits of its use.
Nevertheless, fewer than half (47%) of employees who have been trained or associated education reported.
Organizations should also implement clear policies, guidelines and guardrails, systems of accountability and surveillance, and data privacy and security measures.
There are many resources to help organizations develop robust AI governance systems and support responsible AI use.
Correct culture
In addition to this, it is important to create a psychologically safe work environment. Employees are comfortable sharing how and when AI tools are used.
The benefits of such cultures go beyond better monitoring and risk management. It is also central to developing a culture of shared learning and experimentation that supports the responsible spread of AI use and innovation.
AI has the potential to improve the way we work. But there is a need for a literal workforce of AI, robust governance and clear guidance, and a culture that supports the safe, transparent and accountable use. Without these factors, AI is a separate, uncontrolled responsibility.
