Half of Gen Z workers feel guilty using AI and more than four in 10 are using it without their employer’s knowledge, despite businesses increasingly demanding AI skills from new recruits. New global research exposes a growing workplace trust and governance gap as employees embrace AI faster than workplace norms can keep up.
Employers increasingly want young recruits with artificial intelligence (AI) skills, yet half of Gen Z workers feel guilty when they actually use the technology at work, according to new global research exposing a growing disconnect between AI adoption and workplace culture.
The latest AI Paradox at Work research from Employment Hero found that 50% of Gen Z workers feel guilty using AI to produce work, while 52% say using AI to complete parts of their job feels like cheating. More concerning for employers, that uncertainty appears to be pushing AI use underground. Four in 10 (42%) Gen Z workers use AI without their employer’s knowledge, while the same proportion often present AI-generated work as their own.
Yet businesses are simultaneously placing greater value on AI capability. Almost two-thirds (64%) of UK employers say AI has changed what they look for when recruiting, while AI skills have entered the top five attributes employers seek from candidates – ranking ahead of prior experience.
The findings expose an emerging workplace paradox – young employees are increasingly being told AI literacy is essential to their future careers while many remain uncertain about when, where and how they are allowed to use it at work. For businesses, the result could be much more serious than employee discomfort.
Unclear rules risk encouraging shadow AI, weakening oversight of company data and AI-generated outputs, and making it harder for organisations to understand how the technology is actually being used across their workforce.
GEN Z’S GROWING AI GUILT
Employment Hero describes the emerging phenomenon as “AI guilt”. This refers to a sense among employees that using AI to help complete their work amounts to taking a shortcut or somehow cheating.
Among Gen Z workers, that feeling appears particularly pronounced. Half say they feel guilty using AI to produce work, while 52% feel using AI to do parts of their job is cheating. For younger workers, the discomfort may be compounded by stereotypes about Gen Z’s attitude towards work.
Ria Kaur, a university student and jobseeker, described AI as feeling like her “dirty little secret” when navigating internships and workplace placements. “As a Gen Z student experiencing the world of work through internships and placements, I see AI everywhere. But I also find that, in workplace situations, AI can feel like my dirty little secret,” she said.
Kaur believes some of that discomfort stems from stereotypes that young employees are lazy or trying to avoid doing “real work”. “If a young person uses AI at work, it can feel like people assume they are offloading the task or taking the easy way out,” she explained. “In reality, a lot of us are using it responsibly to understand a task, prepare for a conversation or make sense of something new – but I still feel like it has to be kept hidden.”
AI GUILT – AN INTERNATIONAL WORKPLACE ISSUE
The tension around using AI is not confined to the UK. Employment Hero’s wider research surveyed 5,454 employees and 3,290 business leaders across the UK, Australia, Canada and New Zealand, revealing substantial differences in how employees experience the technology.
Canada appears to have an even greater Gen Z AI guilt problem than the UK. Some 56% of Canadian Gen Z workers feel guilty using AI at work, compared with 51% in the UK. Across Canadian workers of all ages:
- 43% feel guilty using AI at work;
- 39% say using AI to complete parts of their job feels like cheating; and
- 34% admit hiding their AI use from their employer.
GROWING CHALLENGES OF SHADOW AI
Meanwhile, 45% of Canadian businesses believe employees are using personal AI accounts at work, highlighting the growing challenge of shadow AI.
Australia reveals a similar contradiction. More than four in 10 (42%) Australian workers say using AI to complete parts of their job feels like cheating, while 34% use AI tools at work without their employer knowing. Yet Australian workers also report some of the strongest benefits from the technology:
- 75% of AI users say it has improved their productivity;
- 74% say it has improved the quality of their work; and
- 61% say AI is helping them build more valuable skills.
AUSTRALIA’S VIEW POINT
Despite those benefits, 45% of Australian employees believe AI is making them more replaceable – the highest level of replacement anxiety among the four countries studied. New Zealand presents a somewhat different picture.
Some 38% of AI users say using it feels like cheating, while 57% say AI is helping them develop valuable skills. New Zealand workers also report the lowest replacement anxiety of the four markets, although 34% still believe AI is making them more replaceable.
The international findings reveal the complexity of employee attitudes towards AI. Workers can simultaneously believe the technology is making them more productive, improving their work and developing valuable skills – while feeling guilty about using it or worried that the same technology could ultimately threaten their jobs.
EMPLOYERS INCREASINGLY WANT AI SKILLS
The discomfort comes at the same time as AI capability is becoming increasingly valuable in recruitment. Almost two-thirds (64%) of UK employers surveyed say artificial intelligence has changed what they look for when hiring. Among the attributes employers now value in candidates:
- 55% cite work ethic and attitude;
- 47% communication and interpersonal skills;
- 42% the ability to learn quickly;
- 39% digital literacy;
- 36% AI skills; and
- 31% prior experience.
AI skills therefore now rank ahead of previous work experience among the attributes employers surveyed say they look for. Young workers are noticing the shift. More than one-third (37%) of UK workers say entry-level positions now specify AI knowledge, yet 23% do not believe their AI skills are sufficient to compete in an increasingly AI-driven jobs market.
This creates a difficult message for young employees: develop AI skills to remain employable, but navigate largely unwritten rules about when using those skills at work is considered acceptable. The tension comes amid wider concerns about what AI means for employment. Previous research reported by Fair Play Talks found that seven in 10 employers believe AI could help solve skills shortages, while three-quarters of workers fear it will ultimately mean fewer jobs.
Together, the findings highlight the contradictory messages workers are receiving. AI skills are becoming more valuable, while anxiety about how the technology could reshape or replace jobs remains high.
GEN Z IS TEACHING ITSELF AI
Despite those concerns, the latest research does not suggest Gen Z is reluctant to embrace artificial intelligence. Quite the opposite. More than half (58%) feel positive about AI becoming a bigger part of their working lives, compared with 25% who say they are worried.
Moreover, young people are not waiting for employers to teach them. An overwhelming 81% of Gen Z workers surveyed have taken it upon themselves to learn AI skills through social media.
Across UK workers more broadly, Employment Hero found that 56% had learned AI skills through social media, while only 43% of UK businesses have formal AI training programmes. The findings reinforce concerns about whether organisations are investing sufficiently in people alongside the technology.
Recent research highlighted found that most employers are preparing workers to use today’s AI tools rather than preparing them for the jobs AI could create or transform tomorrow. In that study, 55.1% of workers were already using generative AI or AI agents daily or weekly, yet only 33.3% had participated in employer-provided AI training during the previous six months. Another 28.3% said their employer provided no AI training at all.
The risk is that employees end up building valuable AI capabilities largely by themselves, without necessarily learning the organisational policies, data protections, ethical considerations and governance principles needed to use those tools safely at work.
WHEN AI USE GOES UNDERGROUND
Perhaps the most concerning finding for employers is not that Gen Z workers are using AI, but that many are hiding that use. Some 42% use AI without their employer’s knowledge, while the same proportion often present AI-generated work as their own. That adds to growing evidence of a shadow AI problem within organisations.
Fair Play Talks recently reported that employees are adopting AI faster than many organisations can govern it, with employees increasingly turning to consumer AI tools outside company-managed systems. The international findings reinforce the concern. One-third of Australian workers (34%) use AI at work without their employer knowing, while 34% of Canadian employees report hiding their use.
Together, the findings point to a significant visibility gap. If employees feel unable to be open about their AI use, employers may have little idea which tools are being used, what company or customer information is being entered into them, how AI-generated outputs are being checked, or how extensively AI is influencing everyday work.
The issue therefore goes beyond whether an employee discloses that AI helped draft an email or presentation. Shadow AI can create risks around privacy, confidential information, intellectual property, bias, accuracy, cybersecurity and accountability. And simply banning tools may not solve the problem if employees already see AI literacy as essential to their careers.
PSYCHOLOGICAL SAFETY CRITICAL TO AI TRANSPARENCY
The findings also suggest responsible AI governance is becoming a workplace culture issue. Employees are more likely to disclose their use of AI when they believe doing so will not automatically result in criticism or assumptions about their competence.
As Fair Play Talks recently explored, AI transparency increasingly depends on psychological safety in the workplace. If employees believe admitting they used AI will make colleagues or managers see them as lazy, dishonest or less capable, they have an obvious incentive to conceal it. That creates a challenge for leaders.
Organisations need transparency to govern AI responsibly. But demanding disclosure without creating a culture in which employees feel safe to disclose may simply push usage further underground. Previous Fair Play Talks coverage has similarly highlighted the importance of putting wellbeing, trust and workplace culture at the heart of AI adoption, with experts warning that weak trust and superficial training can undermine sustainable AI adoption.
The objective should not be unconditional acceptance of every use of AI. Some tasks, information and decisions should have strict limitations or require accountable human oversight. But employees need to know where those boundaries are.
THE PROBLEM ISN’T GEN Z RESISTING AI
Importantly, Employment Hero’s findings suggest the issue is not that younger workers reject artificial intelligence. With 58% positive about AI playing a bigger role in their working lives and 81% proactively learning AI skills, Gen Z appears willing to engage with the technology.
The problem is the disconnect between capability, permission and trust. “There is a real contradiction emerging for young workers,” said Kevin Fitzgerald, UK Managing Director at Employment Hero. “They are being told that AI skills will be critical to their careers, and many are clearly enthusiastic about building those skills, but they still feel guilty when they actually use the tools.”
Fitzgerald said the fact that half of Gen Z feels guilty and more than four in 10 are using AI without their employer’s knowledge suggests workplace norms have not caught up with employee behaviour. “AI shouldn’t feel like cheating,” he added. “It should feel like using any other tool that helps people do their jobs better.”
Without clear guidance, he warned, employees could continue learning and using AI “in the shadows”, making it more difficult for organisations to understand its impact, manage risks and support skills development.
AI ANXIETY AT WORK
One of the wider report’s most interesting findings is that greater AI capability does not necessarily reduce anxiety. Among workers described as highly competent with AI, 78% say the technology is helping them develop valuable skills and 87% say it improves the quality of their work. Yet 54% also feel AI is making them more replaceable, compared with 40% of workers overall.
In other words, the employees who understand AI best may also be among those most conscious of its potential impact on their jobs. The Australian results illustrate the same paradox particularly clearly: 75% report improved productivity, yet 45% feel more replaceable.
This suggests employee anxiety should not automatically be dismissed as resistance to change or a lack of AI literacy. Greater experience with the technology may enable employees to see both its opportunities and its disruptive potential more clearly.
THE PEOPLE CHALLENGE OF AI
The findings add to growing evidence that some of the hardest challenges surrounding workplace AI have relatively little to do with the technology itself. Fair Play Talks recently reported that businesses are still underestimating the people challenges associated with AI transformation, including workforce readiness, leadership and the cultural change required to integrate AI successfully.
The pressure is already reaching those responsible for managing that transition. Separate research found that 95% of HR leaders report rising workloads while three in four organisations still lack a documented AI workforce strategy. Meanwhile, 54% have no formal policy governing employee use of AI tools.
Managers also appear underprepared. Fair Play Talks also recently reported that only four in 10 managers feel sufficiently prepared for difficult conversations around AI anxiety, layoffs and workplace change.
Meanwhile, separate research found that AI is creating new business risks that many organisations are not yet prepared to manage, reinforcing the need to develop governance and organisational resilience alongside technological capability.
The latest Gen Z findings bring those issues together. When employees do not know what responsible AI use looks like – or fear being judged for using it – a people problem can quickly become a governance problem.
PRODUCTIVITY AND AI
Employment Hero’s wider research also challenges assumptions that using AI automatically makes work easier. Nearly three-quarters of employees using AI say it has improved the quality of their work, on a par with reported productivity gains. But the time saved does not necessarily translate into less work.
Among employees who save time using AI:
- 27% redirect it towards higher-level strategic or creative work;
- 26% say the freed-up time simply results in more tasks;
- 14% spend it managing AI itself; and
- only 21% say AI has enabled them to work fewer hours.
Perhaps most strikingly, 63% of employees say AI has created additional work checking its outputs. There are significant national differences too. In Canada, 30% of employees say time saved through AI is immediately filled with more tasks, compared with 26% across the wider study. In Australia, by contrast, 29% say they redirect the time towards more strategic or creative work.
The findings suggest employers should be cautious about judging AI success purely through headline productivity gains. If technology enables employees to complete work more quickly only for the freed capacity to be immediately filled with additional tasks – while employees also spend more time checking AI outputs – organisations need to consider the impact on workload, job quality and wellbeing.
WHAT EMPLOYERS SHOULD DO NEXT
The rise of AI guilt should be a warning that organisations cannot build responsible AI cultures through technology deployment alone. If businesses expect employees to develop AI capabilities, they also need to provide clarity about how those capabilities should be used.
Employers should consider the following pointers:
Create clear AI-use policies.
Employees should know which tools are approved, what information can and cannot be entered into them, when AI use needs to be disclosed and where human oversight is mandatory.
Replace ambiguity with practical guidance.
Organisations should distinguish between legitimate AI assistance and inappropriate delegation rather than allowing employees to assume any use of AI amounts to cheating.
Provide formal AI training.
Employees should not have to rely primarily on social media to learn a technology they are expected to use professionally. Training should cover not only prompting and productivity, but privacy, accuracy, bias, intellectual property, data security and responsible use.
Create psychological safety around disclosure.
Employees need to be able to acknowledge that they used AI without automatically being regarded as less competent or hardworking. Managers should model transparent and responsible AI use themselves.
Define where human judgement matters.
Organisations should establish which tasks can appropriately be supported by AI and which decisions require accountable human expertise and oversight.
Include employees in AI governance.
Workers using these tools every day can provide valuable insight into how AI is actually being used, where policies are unclear and where new risks are emerging.
Prepare managers for AI conversations.
Managers need sufficient knowledge and confidence to answer questions about appropriate use, job security, changing skills and AI-enabled workflows rather than leaving employees to interpret organisational expectations themselves.
Measure job quality alongside productivity.
Employers should assess whether AI is creating better work, opportunities for learning and more strategic activity – or simply enabling organisations to give employees more tasks.
The goal should not be to make employees comfortable using AI everywhere. It should be to remove uncertainty about where AI is appropriate, where it is not and what responsible use looks like.
WHY THIS MATTERS FOR RESPONSIBLE BUSINESS
The rise of AI guilt suggests workplace AI adoption is no longer simply a technology challenge. It is becoming a question of trust, culture, skills, transparency and responsible governance.
Employers cannot simultaneously demand AI literacy from recruits while leaving employees uncertain about whether using those skills will be regarded as innovative, lazy or dishonest. And when that uncertainty pushes AI underground, businesses lose visibility over which tools employees are using, what information may be shared with them and how much work is being generated or influenced by artificial intelligence.
Responsible AI therefore requires more than policies and technical safeguards. It requires employees to understand the rules, managers capable of discussing AI openly, sufficient training to use tools competently and a workplace culture in which people feel able to disclose appropriate AI use.
Across recent Fair Play Talks reporting, a consistent pattern is emerging: AI adoption is moving faster than workforce preparation, governance and organisational culture. Workers are using AI faster than employers can govern it. Organisations are still preparing people for today’s tools rather than tomorrow’s jobs. Managers and HR teams are struggling with new responsibilities. And employees remain deeply divided between the opportunities AI creates and what it could mean for their future employment.
WORKPLACE AI ADOPTION
The international findings show that this is not simply a UK or Gen Z issue. From Canada to Australia and New Zealand, employees are simultaneously experiencing greater productivity and skills development alongside guilt, hidden use and fears of becoming replaceable.
Organisations that establish clearer norms now may be better positioned to build both AI capability and employee trust, while reducing the risks associated with hidden and unmanaged use. Because the biggest workplace risk may not be employees using AI. It may be employees feeling they have to hide it.
Read the full The AI Paradox at Work 2026 report here.
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