More Employees Are Using AI, but Often Don’t Have Guidance
New reports show that AI is becoming more commonplace at work. But companies are falling behind on the appropriate training and policies.
Artificial intelligence is making inroads in the workplace, whether company leaders address it or not.
Thirty-seven percent of employees are now using AI tools at work, according to a new survey of 182 HR executives and business leaders from the global outplacement firm Challenger, Gray and Christmas. That marks a notable increase from the just 12 percent who were using those tools in the fall of 2023.
And yet, 27 percent of companies have “yet to acknowledge AI in their corporate strategy,” the report notes, “suggesting a growing gap between employee behavior and company oversight.”
This gap could be problematic, Andrew Challenger, senior vice president at the firm, said in the report — with potential consequences related to “data security, intellectual property, and ethical concerns.”
One specific gap in AI-related guidance is proper training: Very few of the companies in the survey — 12 percent — have trained employees on using AI or “introduced AI for specific tasks,” according to executives.
This indicates a notable lack of focus on “the training and upskilling necessary to integrate AI successfully into daily operations,” the report adds.
But companies are also falling behind on producing AI-specific policies, the report says. This is reflected in other recent research: The San Francisco-based law firm Littler Mendelson released a report earlier this week which found that fewer than half of the U.S.-based C-suite executives surveyed — 44 percent — have generative AI policies in place at their organizations.
At the organizations without these policies, nearly half — 48 percent — of executives said this was due to the “perception of low risk to our organization.” Other executives pointed to a “lack of understanding” or expertise as well as the “rapid evolution of generative AI” and the uncertainty that it breeds.
And yet, Challenger’s report says that in the “absence of structured guidance, employees are left to explore AI tools on their own, underscoring the need for businesses to proactively create frameworks for responsible AI use.”
Progress is being made, though: Although less than half of executives say their organizations have AI policies, that’s a marked improvement from the 10 percent who had them in Littler Mendelson’s 2023 report. Moreover, 25 percent of respondents said they are in the process of producing a generative AI policy, and 19 percent said they are “considering one.”
Indeed, as AI usage only increases, the Challenger report states, it’s now high time for companies behind on their AI guidance to “catch up.”
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