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Question:

I’ve been using AI for the last nine months to stay sane. Before AI, an overwhelming workload and the constant pressure to meet unrealistic deadlines made me feel like a cat hanging on by its claws to a shaky tree limb. By integrating AI into my workflow—mainly for research—I’ve been able to save five to seven hours a week, making my job manageable again.

Then, last week, the hammer dropped.

A memo from our home office declared:

Due to the potential that employees using AI might inadvertently feed sensitive company information into external models, we are prohibiting any unauthorized use of AI or other ChatGPT. Our company prides itself on our ability to provide our clients and customers with unique, custom-tailored, innovative work products, rather than formulaic AI-generated materials. Employees using AI-generated information in their research, given repeated recent instances in which this information has been shown to be inaccurate and misleading, risk discipline up to and including immediate termination.

I wanted to challenge this memo, but didn’t dare. Our home office is run by old-school managers who feel threatened by AI—and anything else they don’t understand.

This leaves me with a difficult choice—risk my job or lose my sanity. For now, I covertly use AI because I refuse to return to 80-hour workweeks.

The problem—I’m afraid I’ll be caught.

Answer:

Fortunately, your employer’s memo left a small opening—unauthorized use of AI. This gives you a potential path forward—seek authorization.

Make a case.

If you decide to take a risk, consider making a case for how you’ll protect your work product and your company when using AI by:

• Not uploading proprietary company materials.
• Providing ChatGPT or other AI tools with clear advance parameters.
• Verifying the facts in any AI answers before incorporating them into your work products.
• Applying human creativity to refine and enhance final products prior to delivering them to internal or external customers or clients.

Convincing your employer to use AI

Here’s what you might say if caught:

AI tools can enhance employee productivity by automating repetitive tasks, freeing them for higher-value work. AI thus eases an employee’s workload burdens. As I wrote in an earlier ADN column, employees “who use AI report it saves them time (90%); allows them to focus on their most important work (85%); enables them to be more creative (84%), and results in them enjoying their work more (83%) because it frees them from menial tasks.” https://www.adn.com/business-economy/2024/06/03/fear-it-or-love-it-theres-no-escaping-ai-in-the-workplace/.

Companies that don’t leverage AI may fall behind those that do.

AI can generate new ideas, improve workflow, and streamline operations.

AI provides a tool that augment—and not replaces—human creativity.

How employers can detect that employees are using AI

Since you fear your covert AI use may be discovered, here’s what you need to know.

Detection Tools: Platforms like Originality.ai, Copyleaks, and GPTZero specialize in identifying AI-generated text. These tools analyze patterns and assess the probability that an employee’s text is machine-generated. Regrettably, these platforms can sometimes produce false positives.​ Further, material you place on certain AI tools may have a long shelf life. As one example, OpenAI states user interactions may be temporarily retained for training and debugging, depending on user agreements.

Writing style: AI often generates text with predictable patterns, repetitive phrasing and clichés or overly embellished writing that doesn’t match the employee’s natural style.

Lack of deep understanding: If an employee struggles to explain their work when questioned, they might have overly relied on AI. Some employers fear employees lose problem-solving and critical thinking abilities when consistently relying on AI.

Metadata clues: Some AI-generated documents contain telltale formatting or linguistic markers.

Finally, you noted your home office managers find threatening tools that might take their company in unknown directions. That observation offers you another path forward—what if you approach your home office leadership and offer to show them the benefits AI offers your company? Since you’ve used AI for research, you might suggest they pose three to five questions—and show them the substantive information AI provides. You can even offer to create a refined AI policy for your company—that allows your company and its coworkers to reap AI benefits without risking AI’s potential downsides.

p.s. If you found this post valuable, you’ll find other intriguing information in https://workplacecoachblog.com/2024/06/employees-turn-to-ai-in-a-seismic-shift/.

© 2025 Lynne Curry, PhD, SPHR, SHRM-SCP