‘I’ve just done about 2 weeks' work in an hour. Do I tell my boss or keep it secret?’ — Nearly a third of AI users are hiding it from their employers

Do you use AI at work? And if you do, does your employer know about it? A huge new study from Deloitte of 25,000 UK workers found that two-thirds have already used generative AI for work — and nearly a third of generative AI users say they're using it without their employer's knowledge.

Welcome to the world of ‘shadow AI’: workers bringing their own AI tools into the workplace, often without official approval, and using them to get their jobs done faster.

A look at Reddit reveals what that can mean in practice.

One Reddit user complained: “My coworker is secretly using ChatGPT to do 80% of his work.

He's getting praised for efficiency.” Their dilemma was simple: “Do I tell the bosses?” Another Reddit user had the opposite problem after discovering just how much time AI could save them.

“I’m a relative noob, so please don’t roast me, but I’ve just done about 2 weeks' work in an hour.

Do I tell my boss or keep it secret?” One of the most popular responses to their predicament was equally revealing: “Remember, AI work is more detectable than you think.

Spend time humanizing the output and adding your own texture, then shut up.” It's easy to see the attraction.

If you've discovered a tool that lets you complete two weeks' worth of work in an hour, why wouldn't you use it? The more difficult question is whether you should tell anyone. (Image credit: Getty Images / ViDI Studio) Shadow lands Shadow AI doesn't necessarily mean employees are doing anything malicious.

In many cases, workers simply prefer using AI tools they're already familiar with rather than whatever their company has provided — assuming it has provided anything at all.

But there's an important difference between using your own favorite productivity app and using an unapproved AI chatbot.

As my colleague Craig Hale reported in June, a survey from PagerDuty found that 88% of workers had shared work-related information with public AI systems.

Some 43% had uploaded emails or correspondence, 40% had shared meeting notes, 34% had entered customer information, and 31% had shared sensitive business information such as financial data or confidential company documents.

And that's where shadow AI becomes more than an awkward conversation about whether somebody deserves credit for working faster.