The survey found that one out of 10 workers have taken dramatic actions, such as tampering with performance metrics to make it look as if an AI tool is underperforming and intentionally generating low-quality outputs. — Bloomberg
Why has the adoption process been so difficult? The survey, commissioned by AI startup Writer, places at least some of the blame with younger employees. The survey polled 800 C-suite executives and 800 employees, and found that 31% of employees admitted to sabotaging their company’s generative AI strategy. Of the Millennial and Gen-Z employees surveyed, 41% said they’ve engaged in some form of sabotage.
“Sabotage”, in this context, can take a variety of forms with varying levels of seriousness. Twenty-seven percent of surveyed employees admitted to low-level sabotage, like entering company information into a non-approved generative AI tool. But more concerningly, 16% of employees admitted to having been aware of an AI security leak but didn’t report it.
As for more active attempts by employees to disrupt the flow of work, the survey found that one out of 10 workers have taken dramatic actions, such as tampering with performance metrics to make it look as if an AI tool is underperforming and intentionally generating low-quality outputs.
There are several reasons why such a large percentage of younger employees are actively working against their employers’ AI plans, according to the survey. Of the surveyed saboteurs, 33% said that AI diminishes their value or creativity, while 28% said they didn’t want AI to take their job, and that the AI they were using at work was low-quality and had too many security issues.
In general, the survey found that executives tended to have a much more positive view of AI when compared with employees. Nearly 90% of surveyed executives said their company has a generative AI strategy in place, compared with just 57% of workers. That disconnect has led to confusion, as employees are unsure who, if anyone, “owns” the generative AI strategy at their company.
For example: Forty-two percent of employees said their company’s IT leaders hold the power in making AI-related decisions. Only 29% of the C-suite felt similarly, while 67% said that executives like themselves were in charge of setting the AI strategy.
A surprising 42% of executives said that this lack of clarity is “tearing their company apart,” as teams that are supposed to be collaborating get bogged down in internal power struggles regarding the ownership and direction of the businesses’ AI strategy.
It isn’t all doom and gloom, though. Over 90% of both employees and execs expressed optimism about their company’s approach to AI, and around half of both groups are actively using AI to provide data analysis at work. Nearly 40% of employees said that AI has helped them spend less time writing and completing administrative tasks, while over half of executives say the tech has given them more time to focus on strategy.
To make the AI transition easier on both employees and executives, Writer suggests identifying and supporting “AI champions”. Those are employees who have been proactive about embracing generative AI at work and can act as advocates and evangelists for its usefulness.
Workers are more likely to adopt a new tool if they feel like it’s helping them “hack” a difficult problem, rather than using a corporate-mandated tool without proper training or explanation. – Inc./Tribune News Service
