Last week, my children’s school facilitated an AI educator to come and talk to the parents. It was a full room as all tried to figure out what it all means for our kids’ education. One of the things that struck me was that students understate their reported usage of AI. They are afraid of looking less qualified, lazier, cheaters. They are ashamed. I felt like I needed to investigate this further. Is it the same in business?
The Stigma of Laziness
There is an inherent belief that people who use AI are lazy. Whilst it is expected in the early stages of technology adoption, it was not any different when we introduced the calculator; it is limiting our ability to get honest and transparent information about AI’s usage.
[Social norms around AI usage] has made individuals to not want to disclose fully their use of AI due to possible stigmatization
– Underreporting of AI Use: The Role of Social Desirability Bias, SSRN
I had a conversation with my son’s coach recently, as my son proudly told his coach about developing an app on Lovable (see here if you missed that experiment). His coach was wary that all his colleagues in Uni seemed to be using AI for everything, and he was one of the few not having his laptop working alongside the teacher in class to help with answers. He felt like they were just being lazy and not trying to learn. I challenged him and asked, “Do you think those colleagues would be lazy without AI?” He did not hesitate in his answer. “Yes”.
Then, the problem is not AI, it’s their values.
And I went on to explain that his avoiding the usage of AI to look less lazy was not going to do him any good, and he would probably only fall behind. With AI, he could perform at the standard he wanted, with ethics, but without an unfair disadvantage versus their college-mates. It did not mean he would be lazy, as he was not a lazy person.
The Pressure of the AI Hype
If in a university setting the tendency is for students to underreport their usage, with laziness being one of the factors (and lack of competence the other one, as I will come to explain), in corporate settings, we may be at the opposite end. There is less AI shaming and more AI hype, so in fact, the study reports a tendency for employees to over-report their AI usage. In highly hyped corporate settings, employees fear the same shame, but this time of being the only ones not using it.
“They fear being seen as non-innovative or falling behind the times. “
In recent management discussions, I have observed this reaction up close and personal. As we were in a closed, safe environment, most people did not venture into over-reporting. But there was some discomfort, almost shame in the room, as some of them mentioned how little they were still using it, given all the hype they could hear. Even though it was clear there was nothing about being backwards-looking in there, just a lack of time and resources to get started.
Lack of Ability
On top of the fear of looking lazy, there is also the fear of looking incapable. In this same study, students find that declaring AI use might be viewed as an admission of being unable to complete work independently, leading to a perception of lower academic ability. It’s like you only use AI if you don’t know the answer to the case.
As I explained to my son’s coach, using AI wisely is an enhancer, not a replacer. Equally, the study suggests universities can have policies to guide students towards using AI for its most productive purposes, but discouraging full outsourcing of core thinking for homework and exams.
Universities and exam boards will have to catch up with how they evaluate their students quickly. Using AI for developing parts of the work, brainstorming, researching deeper, challenging assumptions, or even proofreading are signs of commitment and curiosity. They are not to be penalised or confused by laziness. Especially if it means students will try to hide it. Or avoid using it altogether, a tool that, used wisely, can enhance their abilities.
Lack of Need
Again, in a corporate setting, this can take an extra nuance. Not only do employees fear a judgment of competence if they are now doing parts of their work with AI, but they are also fearing that they may not be needed altogether.
Source: When Better Performance Feels the Same: Performance Underestimation in Human-AI Collaboration, slide by Notebook LM
On the one hand, employees will under-report their usage, making it hard for companies to really assess where AI is having an impact on their business. On the other hand, they are underestimating the impact on their own performance, undervaluing the output they get when co-creating with AI, and potentially dismissing what could be good work for fear of stigma. And therefore not adopting AI as fully as they otherwise could.
I found it even more worrying that the more frequent users of AI are the ones fearing it more:
Concern is significantly higher among frequent AI users (those using it daily or multiple times per week), who report displacement fears at rates roughly twice as high as infrequent users.
– The Sum of All (Workplace) Fears: How Managers Mediate the Fear of AI Job Displacement
Navigating the hype and the stigma
We know that at the core of good business decisions lies good data. Or so we hope. In the presence of these forces that cause reporting to be all over the place, it is key to understand what culture we are creating:
- Are we treating AI with distrust, fearing people will be less committed to their learning or their work?
- Are we hyping AI adoption and linking it into promotions, naming the non-adopters as the first ones in line to be let go?
- Are we focused exclusively on the potential headcount cost savings AI can achieve, leading employees to fear for their future?
The answer to these questions will determine the quality of the answers we are getting when studying AI adoption. The social norms of the company will create barriers to adoption and barriers to dissemination, a key step in scaling AI with meaningful impact.
Corporations need to distinguish between honest concerns about AI adoption – data, ethics, bias – and irrational prejudice that can lead to employees hiding it or not making full use of it. But they also need to be clear about what adopting AI will mean for employees’ futures.
That will get rid of shame… and fear.
PS – Breaking the stigma
For this article, I used a few AI tools openly and intentionally:
- I used Gemini to help me locate the original research behind the numbers I had seen in the parent presentation, and then to dig deeper into related studies about under- and over- reporting in universities and corporate environments
- I used Notebook LM to help me turn the research papers into a more digestible visual presentation and to challenge and query some of the statements I was making. One of the slides is above.
- I used ChatGPT for an editorial review of this article and to help prepare related social media materials
I speak openly about my experiments with AI at Try AI for Growth precisely to help people get started and remove the stigma about using these tools. I don’t see it as incompetence or laziness, I see it as a superpower. And I make sure to tell all my team members the same.
Yes, part of me still fears people may doubt me about being so public about my AI usage. But when I look at what these tools help me create, think through and explore, it feels worth the risk.
Photo by Yan Krukau on Pexels