Employers urged to set clear expectations, normalise conversations around AI
Employers are being urged to "normalise the conversation" around AI adoption as a new report found that employees using the technology feel like they're cheating at work.
Findings from a new Employment Hero report showed that Australian employees are beginning to feel the "AI guilt" that their counterparts globally are experiencing.
Some 42% of Australians believe using AI to complete parts of their job feels like "cheating," while nearly half of the workforce feels guilty about using the technology despite the benefits they gain from it.
The result of AI guilt is the need to hide their use of the technology in the workplace, a practice that 34% of Australians admitted to doing.
Ben Thompson, CEO and co-founder of Employment Hero, said the fix to this problem isn't complicated.
"Employers need to set clear expectations, build AI literacy into how they onboard and develop people, and normalise the conversation," Thompson said.
"The businesses that do that will pull ahead. Not because their people suddenly start using AI, but because they already are."
Benefits of AI adoption
According to Thompson, Australians are among the fastest adopters of AI globally, and their research shows they are receiving major gains from it.
Three in four Australians reported an improvement in productivity as a result of using AI, while another 74% said it improved the quality of their work.
More than a quarter of employees (29%) also said the time they save from using AI gets redirected into strategic or creative work, while another 22% said they are able to do more of the same tasks.
Six in 10 respondents (61%) also pointed out that AI is helping them develop more valuable skills at work.
"AI is the first credible productivity lever in almost two decades... the data is unambiguous," Thompson said.
The findings come following previous government forecasts that AI could deliver 2.3% in productivity gains in the next decade, offering a solution to the country's stagnating productivity.
"Australia's productivity problem has an answer and it's already in front of us," Thompson said. "Now we need to make sure the settings are right for businesses to actually capture it."
