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Employee Relations

Half of Gen Z workers feel guilty using AI at work

Employment Hero research found 50% of Gen Z workers feel guilty using AI to produce work, while 42% use AI without their employer’s knowledge.

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Half of Gen Z workers feel guilty using AI at work
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Half of Gen Z workers feel guilty using AI to produce work, according to research from Employment Hero.

The employment platform said a new workplace trend, described as “AI guilt”, is emerging among younger workers who see AI literacy as important to their careers but do not feel they have clear permission to use it openly at work.

The research found 52% of Gen Z workers said using AI to do parts of their job feels like cheating, while 42% use AI without their employer’s knowledge.

The same proportion, 42%, said they often present AI-generated work as their own, raising concerns around shadow AI and a lack of clear workplace guidance.

Employment Hero said the findings formed part of its global study, The AI Paradox at Work, which examined AI adoption and attitudes among small businesses and employees.

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The report found 64% of UK employers said AI had changed what they look for when hiring. AI skills have entered the top 5 attributes employers look for in candidates, cited by 36% of employers, ahead of prior experience at 31%.

The most valued attribute was work ethic and attitude, at 55%, followed by communication and interpersonal skills at 47%, the ability to learn quickly at 42%, and digital literacy at 39%.

The research also found 37% of UK workers said entry-level roles now specify AI knowledge, while 23% did not feel their skills were sufficient to compete in an AI-driven job market.

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Ria Kaur, university student and jobseeker, said: “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.

“I think this comes from the stigma around younger generations using AI, which becomes stronger in the workplace because of the frustrating idea that Gen Z are lazy, or that we do not know what real work is.

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“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. 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.”

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Employment Hero said younger workers were already trying to build AI skills, with 81% of Gen Z respondents saying they had taken it upon themselves to learn through social media.

More than half of Gen Z workers, at 58%, said they felt positive about AI becoming a bigger part of their working life, compared with 25% who said they were worried.

Kevin Fitzgerald, UK managing director at Employment Hero, said: “There is a real contradiction emerging for young workers. 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.

“When half of Gen Z feel guilty using AI at work, and more than four in ten are doing so without their employer’s knowledge, it shows that workplace norms have not yet caught up with employee behaviour.

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“AI shouldn’t feel like cheating. It should feel like using any other tool that helps people do their jobs better. But if workers don’t have clear guidance, they’ll continue to learn in the shadows, making it harder for businesses to understand AI’s true impact, manage risk and support skills development. The opportunity is to bring AI into the open, build trust, be transparent and help a generation use it confidently.”

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