Bosses warn workers: use AI or face the sack

Telegraph

2 days ago

When ChatGPT first burst into the public consciousness, techies and geeks were eager to experiment with the latest cool product. Before long, some of them were using it to automate their work or respond to emails in the office.
The reaction from executives was a brutal crackdown. Dozens of companies banned or restricted access to ChatGPT, warning staff about data leaks and plagiarism.
Now, bosses cannot get enough of artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots. With pressure from investors to boost productivity and cut costs, executives are increasingly demanding their underlings brush up on using AI tools, whether they like it or not.
While some workers have eagerly taken to the new technology, others are hesitant. In a survey of chief executives by technology giant Kyndryl, 45pc reported their staff were either 'resistant or openly hostile' towards AI.
Having already coaxed true believers into trying out AI tools, executives at some of the world's biggest companies are now turning to more aggressive tactics to boost uptake.
Last month, Julia Liuson, president of Microsoft's developer division, warned staff that 'using AI is no longer optional'. Liuson said in an internal email that AI use should be factored into 'reflections on an individual's performance and impact'. Just days later, Microsoft said it would cut 9,000 workers.
Separately, Tobias Lütke, chief executive of $150bn (£112bn) e-commerce business Shopify, told staff in April the business would 'add AI usage questions to our performance and peer review questionnaire'. Lütke added that 'before asking for more headcount and resources', staff should consider how they could use AI to be more productive. Duolingo, the translation app, has similarly linked AI use to performance reviews.
The implication for workers is clear: use AI, or risk losing your job.
'Innovate or die'
Micha Kaufman, the chief executive of freelancing app Fiverr, was blunt in a note to its 700 staff. He urged staff to 'wake up' and warned those who did not adapt to the 'new reality, fast, are, unfortunately, doomed'.
However, pressure for staff to use AI to improve productivity is not just limited to technology.
In an interview with Bloomberg in May, Nicolai Tangen, chief executive of Norway's sovereign wealth fund, said: 'It isn't voluntary to use AI or not. If you don't use it, you will never be promoted. You won't get a job.'
One City source says there has been a 'huge push' in their workplace to use AI tools and that 'clients love it'. A private equity executive says: 'Our deal team uses some kind of AI tool every single day.'
According to AI evangelists, it is 'innovate or die'. Harry Stebbings, founder of technology investor 20VC, says: 'All leaders must be encouraging people to actively look for ways that they can insert AI and make themselves more efficient.'
At 20VC, for instance, Stebbings says his team sits down every Friday afternoon to spend an hour experimenting with AI tools and chatbots, before presenting new ideas for using them to the team.
Investors, meanwhile, are clamouring for businesses to embed AI in everything they do, hoping to match some of the trillions of dollars in share-price gains that some of the world's biggest tech giants have enjoyed since the launch of ChatGPT.
AI use among workers has been rising. A study from Slack, the workplace messaging tool, found that 60pc of US office workers were now using AI tools, up 50pc on six months ago.
But many workers are understandably uneasy.
For one, AI leaders have been proclaiming the tools will soon replace swathes of white-collar jobs. Dario Amodei, chief executive of AI lab Anthropic, told Axios that AI could wipe out half of white collar jobs and increase unemployment by 10 to 20pc within five years.
Andy Jassy, the Amazon chief executive, has likewise warned staff that AI will allow it to 'reduce our total corporate workforce'. A widely-cited report from Goldman Sachs warned 300m jobs could be lost to AI.
Workers plainly have little to gain by handing over tasks to tools that their bosses believe could replace them before long.
Cause for scepticism
LJ Justice, an analyst at Gartner, says there remains a 'clear gap between executive enthusiasm and employee enablement'. Gartner argues this is down to most staff being expected to take up the tools with little guidance. It found 82pc of staff had received no instruction on how best to use the tools.
Meanwhile, Lewis Keating, of Deloitte, says that just half of workers trust businesses to use AI tools responsibly, holding back uptake. 'The biggest hurdle to AI adoption right now isn't the technology, it's trust,' he says.
Some tech workers are cynical about the motives of their leaders. On Blind, a forum frequented by tech employees, one worker says: 'Most big tech companies are mandating their employees use AI … it allows them to pump up the numbers of their product.
'What it tells you is, we aren't going to make our numbers and if you aren't helping to boost those numbers, we will replace you.'
Across social media, tech workers and programmers have bemoaned being ordered to using AI tools that are not always completely accurate. AI models suffer from an issue known as 'hallucination', meaning they are prone to making up facts. Some have claimed the pressure is making them consider quitting the industry.
AI labs including OpenAI, Anthropic and the tech giant Microsoft have all launched AI tools designed to speed up coding that have been championed by AI fans.
But Anton Zaides, a software developer and author of the Manager.dev newsletter, writes: 'Stop forcing AI tools on your engineers.'
He writes it is 'nuts' that managers are grading workers on 'how the 'best' employees are eating through the tools budget'. He adds that companies that mandate AI use should not be 'surprised if you end up with a slower pace and a complete mess in a year'.
Some executives argue attitudes are changing and there is no need to force tools on staff. Barney Hussey-Yeo, founder of UK fintech start-up Cleo, says: 'What was once met with strong resistance - using AI for coding - is now standard at Cleo. We've covered tool costs for our team but avoided mandating adoption; it's grown organically.'
But developers with first-hand experience of AI tools may have reasons to be sceptical about the hype from the C-suite.
A study from the Upwork Research Institute found that while 96pc of senior leaders believed AI was leading to productivity gains at their companies, 77pc of workers reported they felt it was slowing them down.
Perhaps most striking is a controlled study from METR, an AI research lab. It found that while computer programmers believed they were 20pc faster when using AI tools, they were actually working 19pc slower.
But AI doubters may wish to keep quiet – their careers could be at stake.
As Kaufman, the Fiverr chief executive, warned staff: 'If you think I'm full of sh-- … be my guest and disregard this message. But I honestly don't think that a promising professional future awaits you.'