- About half of the workers have received warnings about using unapproved artificial intelligence
- 88% say they have shared work-related information with public AI
- Companies are providing AI, but not the AI that workers want
New data has revealed that two out of three office professionals have used AI tools or services at work, even though they knew they weren’t allowed by company policy.
A report by PagerDuty found that more than half (53%) even received informal guidance or feedback telling them to stop, but many still choose to use their preferred AI services over workplace tools.
Almost as many (48%) also faced formal consequences, such as official warnings or disciplinary action – evidence that companies are aware of the use of authorized AI.
Workers will use the AI they want to use – not the other way around
Despite a clear appetite for artificial intelligence, companies are keen to penalize or discourage workers from using their preferred tools in favor of pushing their own range of enterprise-grade tools. But three-quarters (77%) of workers surveyed said they believe their company’s AI limitations are limiting their professional development, career progression and skills journey.
A gap is also emerging between business users and enterprise technical departments – 72% of employees and 77% of senior executives believe they know AI better than technical teams.
As for the tools workers want to use, popular AI chatbots like ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini are firm favorites. Most (88%) have shared work-related information with public AI systems like these, 43% have uploaded emails, 40% have shared meeting notes, 34% have even entered customer information, and 31% have entered sensitive business documents like financials.
“We know the demand for artificial intelligence is there… The goal of every manager today should not be to slow down the use of artificial intelligence, but to redirect that energy into proven platforms that offer control and automation at scale,” said Tim Armandpour, CTO of PagerDuty.
While it is clear that the demand is there, the current tool supply is not meeting the needs of employees. To avoid leaking sensitive information, companies could instead try to observe how workers use AI and instead add enterprise-grade security on top of that.
Follow TechRadar on Google News and add us as a preferred source to get our expert news, reviews and opinions in your feeds.
