Majority of office workers use AI at work despite policies: survey

AI use in the office has now become so widespread that non-technical employees are quickly growing more confident in their AI expertise. In fact, a significant majority of Australian office professionals (75%) believe they understand how to use AI for their job better than the team responsible for managing AI at their company.

This is according to a survey of 250 Australian office professionals who work at companies with a minimum annual revenue of $500m, and working in non-IT and technology roles, conducted by Wakefield Research on behalf of PagerDuty.

This sentiment is consistent across the four regions surveyed — Australia, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States, with a combined 1250 people surveyed — and hits a fever pitch at billion-dollar enterprises, where 80% of employees believe they have better AI expertise at work than their tech teams. Senior leaders (77%) are also more likely to feel this way than mid-level managers or below (66%).

Self-directed

The rise of shadow AI is often a result of vague corporate policies and high levels of managerial trust. A strong majority in Australia (82%) believe their company’s leaders trust employees to figure out for themselves which AI tools work best for their day-to-day work.

The penetration of popular AI tools such as ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini into everyday life is becoming evident at the office as more workers show up to work with bootstrapped AI skills. Among workers globally who’ve used AI in their work responsibilities, 89% first used an AI tool at work after using it in their personal life. In Australia, 58% are more likely to have done this multiple times, compared to 60% globally. Those who use AI regularly as part of their work are much more likely (60%) to have adopted AI tools multiple times after using them personally than those who only use AI at work occasionally or less often (34%). Regardless of how it began, those using AI for work find themselves using AI more often on the job (76%) than outside of work (24%).

At home with AI and bringing it to work

While regular AI use — multiple times a week — was found to happen more often at work (60%) than at home (48%), a larger majority (84%) are occasionally using AI in their personal lives in Australia. Top use cases for personal use include research and learning (42%), planning and organising schedules (34%), writing or creating other content (30%) or for hobbies and activities (30%).

Those who have adopted AI tools at work (after using them first in their personal life) have some clear motivations for doing so. For 48% in Australia, it’s because they became confident using the tool through personal use. Others brought AI to work because of a change, such as AI becoming more widely accepted in their workplace (39%), their organisation formally approving or introducing AI tools (39%), or a role or responsibility change that made AI relevant to them (34%). Overall, 60% are regularly using AI as part of their work responsibilities globally.

Among those who have ever used AI as part of their work responsibilities, over two-thirds (70%) in Australia have used AI tools or services at work even though they believed they were not allowed under company policies. In Australia, as a result of that unauthorised AI use, more than half (58%) received informal feedback or guidance, while 53% faced formal consequences, such as a warning or disciplinary action. More than a quarter of workers (27%) experienced disapproval from co-workers.

AI confidentiality

Rising employee confidence in AI is becoming a major liability for companies, as workers increasingly feed sensitive internal data into public models. More than a third (37%) in Australia have entered emails or other work-related correspondence into public AI tools such as ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini that aren’t part of their company’s internal systems. Even more troubling, more than a third (40%) have entered customer data or information into public AI tools, while 28% have input financial information or disclosed confidential company documents or strategies.

Rules disparities

One reason that workers may think they’re justified in their AI use, whether it’s allowed or not, is that they view the policies at their company as inconsistent. While a clear majority (82%) of Australians work at companies where they believe there are policies for AI tools, 83% believe there are different rules, or treatment of rules, around AI policies for leadership than the rest of the company.

Hiding in plain sight

Over a third (36%) of Australians who have used AI for their work responsibilities would hide their AI use to dodge scrutiny from their superiors. Avoiding scrutiny from managers or leadership is one of the top reasons (36%) that AI-using workers would intentionally hide or keep from disclosing using AI for their job. Another 30% would hide it because their company policies are restrictive, or to avoid judgment from co-workers. Some (28%) are unsure if their AI use is allowed or not. But a similar share (25%) claim they wouldn’t hide or avoid disclosing their AI use at all.

Even with so many workers engaging in shadow AI, there are still many who want to follow the rules, or at least have some guidance on what is allowed. 45% would rather use AI for work without telling anyone rather than risk being told they cannot use it.

Life, hacked

Outside of work, nearly all Australians who have used AI in their personal life are almost universally willing (96%) to give the tech credit for helping them in at least a few small ways. But some (21%) go so far as to call it transformational, changing their life in significant ways.

Our coexistence with AI is evolving rapidly, and as more people are tasked with using it at work, their habits and reliance on the tech are shifting. Almost half (44%) in Australia have used personal devices to complete work tasks or projects with AI, while 39% have gone to AI for work-related advice or help making decisions. Notably, 44% have used AI to work around limitations with existing company-approved tools. More than a third (34%) have shared AI-assisted work without disclosing that artificial intelligence helped.

Looking elsewhere for greener AI pastures

One unintended consequence of workplaces that do not nurture the use of AI among employees is that those employees may go elsewhere. A large majority (72%) in Australia would be likely to look for a new job that offered better skills development in AI. What’s driving that potential exodus? More than two-thirds (78%) believe their companies’ restrictions or policies on AI usage are limiting their professional growth or career mobility.

That could change as more companies offer that growth through training and additional resources. More than half (53%) believe their company is investing adequately in AI skills training and resources.

Image credit: iStock.com/Rockaa