- 75% of UK business travelers would use or have used unapproved AI tools
- Many are not satisfied with the tools they get, some don’t even get any
- Workers don’t want to use other tools – they just want AI to be integrated
New data from SAP Concur has seemingly confirmed that employees are still ignoring company policies, with three out of four UK business travelers using (or would use) unapproved AI tools.
Data from the company’s Global Business Travel Survey shows that while organizations are investing heavily in AI, they are not giving employees access to the right tools.
As a result, employees choose to use other, more suitable alternatives and often prefer publicly available chatbots such as ChatGPT and Gemini.
Shadow AI is an even bigger problem among traveling workers
Two in five (43%) said they use unapproved tools because they prefer other options to what they get, but a third (32%) say their organization doesn’t even offer AI tools to support travel planning or booking, forcing them to look elsewhere.
The data shows that remote workers (81%) are more likely to use shadow AI than office-based workers (71%), as are younger workers such as Gen Z (79%) and Millennials (76%) compared to Gen X (62%) and Boomers (49%).
In terms of what employees are looking for when it comes to artificial intelligence to support their travel needs, the top use case is travel planning (37%). Tracking expenses (30%), assessing travel risks (26%), making changes to their travel (24%) and completing expense reports (21%) are also common examples of using the productivity-enhancing technology.
But business leaders already know the scale of the problem – 100% of CFOs are concerned about shadow AI in business travel, the report found.
“Managers must educate employees about risks and provide T&E tools that deliver the desired level of AI support,” noted EMEA VP of Concur Travel Paul Dear.
Looking forward, the fix will have to come from organizations – workers are clearly not too keen on having to navigate to third-party tools and are doing so out of necessity. More than a third actually want their AI tools integrated into their productivity software (38%), communication platforms (36%) and CRM systems (32%).
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