A nationally representative survey of over 1,000 U.S. office workers finds a growing use and misuse of artificial intelligence (AI) within workplaces, as employees at all levels disregard company policies and shift their trust from humans to tools.
The Insider AI Threat Report by CalypsoAI, an AI security provider, found that 52% of the workforce is willing to break their company’s AI policy if it makes their jobs easier and 25% have already used it without checking to see if it is allowed.
Additionally, 45% of employees say they trust AI more than their co-workers and 38% would prefer an AI manager over a person. At the C-suite level, 50% of executives said they’d prefer AI managers over humans. One-third of workers surveyed (34%) said they would quit their jobs if they couldn’t use artificial intelligence tools in their workplace.
Across the workforce, 28% admitted to using AI to access sensitive data, while 28% also revealed they’ve submitted proprietary company information so that AI could complete a task. Among C-suite executives, 35% said they have submitted proprietary company information so that AI could complete a task for them.
The entry-level workforce is among the most vulnerable to security risks, with 37% of entry-level professionals admitting they wouldn’t feel guilty for violating their company’s AI policy. For many, regulations aren’t even part of the decision, with 21% of entry-level workers saying the rules are unclear, so they just do what works.
The report also reveals significant risks in highly regulated industries, where the use of AI poses a high-stake risk of errors, ethical concerns, and unintended consequences affecting people’s health, the economy or national security.
- In the finance industry, 60% admit to violating AI rules, and a third say they’ve used AI to access restricted data.
- In the security industry, 42% of workers knowingly use AI against policy, and 58% say they trust AI more than colleagues.
- In the healthcare industry, only 55% of workers follow their organization’s AI policy, and 27% would rather report to AI than a human supervisor.
“These numbers should be a wake-up call,” said Donnchadh Casey, CEO of CalypsoAI. “We're seeing executives racing to implement AI without fully understanding the risks, frontline employees using it unsupervised, and even trusted security professionals breaking their own rules.”
