Nearly half of U.S. employees are hiding artificial intelligence (AI)-assisted work from their bosses, often to boost productivity in an organization lacking clear AI policies.
Employees who hide AI use worry it will be seen as lazy (16%), risky (15%), or out of step with company policy (16%), according to a new survey of 1,000 adults conducted by Veridata Insights and commissioned by SaaS provider Laserfiche.
“When employees feel like AI is their ‘dirty little secret,’ that’s not a tech problem, it’s a leadership one,” Laserfiche CEO Karl Chan said in a statement. “Many employees are eager to embrace AI to work but often resort to unofficial tools when company-approved options are too limited or difficult to use. Innovative organizations can meet employee needs and unlock new potential by implementing guidelines, and adopting IT-vetted, intuitive AI tools that help employees reach productivity goals.”
While employee sentiment around AI remains divided — workers are split between the benefits of faster, more efficient work vs. concerns over accuracy or misuse — younger generations are more optimistic about AI.
Yet only one in three employees say their workplace has clear policies and approved AI tools in place. Meanwhile, 1 in 10 describe their organization’s AI environment as “the Wild West,” an unregulated space where people do as they please.
As AI tools become more embedded in daily life, the survey reveals a workplace that is far less aligned. More troubling, the survey shows a growing AI governance gap, where use is outpacing policy and underscoring the importance of organizations to roll out AI tools, according to Laserfiche.
Lack of structure led to 46% of workers admitting to pasting company information into ChatGPT or Google Gemini, sometimes without knowing if the content is sensitive or confidential, to gain a competitive edge (24%) or because their company’s own tools are too limited or hard to use (23%).
Older employees are markedly more cautious about using unofficial AI tools at work: 69% of baby boomers and the silent generation and 35% of Gen X avoid such tools, compared to just 21% for millennials and 17% of Gen Z.
