Ive 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

Date:
Wed, 16 Sep 2026 15:00:00 +0000

Description:
A new survey reveals that a third of workers are hiding the fact that they
use AI from their boss at work. Are you one?

FULL STORY ======================================================================Copy link Facebook X Whatsapp Reddit Pinterest Flipboard Threads Email Share this article 0 Join the conversation Follow us Add us as a preferred source on Google Newsletter Subscribe to our newsletter 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. Latest Videos From TechRadar Watch full video here:

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. Im a relative noob, so please dont roast me, but Ive just done about 2 weeks' work in an hour. Do I tell my boss or keep it
secret? You may like More than half of employees are using unapproved AI
tools at work You fix it by making the secure option just as fast and frictionless as the risky one: Practical advice on addressing shadow AI Half of adults admit they would publish work created mainly by AI and not say so

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. Get daily insight, inspiration and deals in your inbox Sign up for breaking news, reviews, opinion, top tech deals, and more. Contact me with news and offers from other Future brands Receive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over. (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. What to read next Shadow AI is actually the symptom: here's how to treat the cause New study finds bosses are far more comfortable sharing work documents with AI than their employees despite the security risks Employees are increasingly asking AI questions they previously have asked their co-workers

And that's where shadow AI becomes more than an awkward conversation about whether somebody deserves credit for working faster. Employees can
potentially be feeding sensitive company information into AI services their employers haven't approved or secured.

But workers don't necessarily trust their employers to make the right decisions about AI either. PagerDuty found that 72% of workers believed they understood AI better than their own tech teams, while 77% thought their company's AI restrictions were limiting their professional development.

You can start to see why shadow AI is such a difficult problem for workplaces to navigate. An employee might simply see AI as a tool that helps them do their job faster, while colleagues could understandably wonder whether
someone deserves the same credit for work largely produced by AI. For employers, there's the added concern that sensitive company information could be finding its way into AI tools they haven't approved or secured. Who's really in the wrong? And lets not forget how divisive AI can be. Many workers have a real aversion to using AI in any form whatsoever. One Reddit user
asked : How do I tell my boss who keeps telling me to use ChatGPT for simple tasks that I'm anti-AI?

Workplace rules haven't necessarily caught up with the speed at which employees have adopted AI, and there's another remarkable number in
Deloitte's research that suggests just how far this has already gone.

According to the Deloitte survey, British workers are now spending an estimated 958 million of their own money every year on generative AI tools they use for work. That's an extraordinary amount of money for employees to
be spending on tools designed to make them better at jobs somebody else is paying them to do particularly when almost a third aren't telling their employers they're using them.

But you can understand why. If you've just discovered a tool that lets you do two weeks' work in an hour, telling your boss might result in them wondering what you're going to do with the rest of the week. Follow TechRadar on Google News and add us as a preferred source to get our expert news, reviews, and opinion in your feeds.



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