New research reveals a widening gap between AI adoption and workplace policy in Australia
Australian workers are using artificial intelligence at work faster than their employers can write policy for it, resulting in the rise of shadow AI in the workplace, according to new research.
Employment Hero's AI Paradox at Work report, based on a commissioned survey with Focaldata of 1,634 Australian workers and 1,008 business leaders, found that one in three Australian workers are now using AI without their employer's knowledge.
This came as 75% of AI users said the technology had improved their productivity, and 74% said it had improved the quality of their work.
Despite these gains, more than four in ten workers said using AI on the job felt like "cheating."
Employment Hero's findings come as a separate survey from PagerDuty found an even higher rate of unauthorised AI use at work.
Among the 250 Australian office professionals surveyed, 70% had used AI tools at work despite believing this was against company policy.
Of those who used AI without authorisation, 58% said they had received informal feedback or guidance as a result, while 53% said they faced formal consequences such as a warning or disciplinary action.
The PagerDuty survey also found that 83% of Australian respondents believed leadership was held to different AI rules than the rest of the workforce, and 36% said they would hide their AI use specifically to avoid scrutiny from managers.
What's driving the secrecy on AI use?
Employment Hero APAC managing director James Keene said the secrecy surrounding AI use was rarely about breaking rules deliberately.
"When staff feel they have to hide their AI use, it's rarely because they're trying to break the rules. More often, they're simply unsure whether it's genuinely encouraged. For leaders, it's about removing that uncertainty and giving people the confidence to use these tools safely," Keene said.
Dr. Anna Kiaos, a researcher at UNSW Sydney's Discipline of Psychiatry and Mental Health, said the pattern reflected a confidence gap rather than a compliance problem.
"AI is already making people better at their jobs - more productive, doing higher-quality work and developing new skills. The only thing holding the workforce back now isn't the technology, it's uncertainty about whether employees are actually allowed to use it, in the ways that work for them," Kiaos said.
"The workforce has already voted for AI with their behaviour and now it is the leadership's job to make it official by talking about it openly, confidently, and with support."
