Employees are faking using AI at work to impress their bosses

• Half say AI has significantly changed their roles, a quarter are worried about job loss
• Three in five believe their employer has no clear AI plan – or no plan at all
• Training and transparency are the most demanded changes by workers

A new Visier report has uncovered just how prolific AI exaggeration could be in the workforce, raising questions about exactly how useful the technology actually is to most workers.

As many as one in two (48%) employees admitted exaggerating their usage or expertise to colleagues or managers some or most of the time, with nearly as many (45%) feeling pressured to use AI at work.

This comes against a backdrop of major change – more than half (54%) say AI has significantly changed their roles over the past two years. With that in mine, the report details how workers feel they’ve been impacted, and how much support they’re getting from the workplace.

AI is changing roles, and many are lying about how they use it

One in three (32%) admit their employer has no clear plan, and more than a quarter (27%) aren’t even sure their employer has any AI plan at all, and that much is clear in that only one-third believe their leaders understand how much AI training and support they need.

Barely one-fifth (21%) would strongly agree that their employer provides sufficient training and support, making upskilling opportunities (32%) the most sought-after thing workers are calling for – a close first, just ahead of greater transparency (31%).

Workers are also worried about AI’s impacts on their jobs, with 24% calling for more career advancement opportunities and 18% calling for clearer communication about how it could impact them. In fact, the most frequently identified concern is job loss – a worry raised by one in for (24%).

“People told us that they actually want to be equipped and informed, not shielded or protected from AI-driven change,” Research and Customer Value Principal Dr Andrea Derler explained.

The report urges businesses to prioritize training and transparency in order to build worker trust, with which they’ll be able to build the productivity gains they’d hoped.