Workers Are Open About Using AI. Their Colleagues Still Judge Them for It.
Most knowledge workers now use AI regularly, but new research suggests that being transparent about it can still hurt workplace perceptions.
An Atlassian study of U.S. knowledge workers found that while 94% used AI in the past month and nearly 80% said they openly disclose that use to managers and coworkers, employees who admit using AI are viewed far less favorably than those who do not.
Researchers found that workers evaluating identical pieces of work were significantly more likely to describe AI users as lazy and were 24 percentage points less likely to recommend them for high-profile assignments. The only difference was whether evaluators were told AI had been used.
AI Adoption Outpaces Workplace Culture
The findings point to a growing disconnect between AI adoption and workplace attitudes.
Organizations have spent the past several years encouraging employees to experiment with AI tools to improve productivity and efficiency. Yet many workers appear to face reputational risks for openly discussing how they use those tools.
The research suggests that employees are navigating an evolving set of workplace norms around AI, often without clear guidance on what is acceptable to share and how AI-assisted work should be perceived.
Culture Influences the AI Stigma
The study found that workplace culture plays a major role in how AI use is received.
In organizations where leaders actively encourage and model AI use, negative perceptions largely disappear. In some cases, employees who disclosed AI use were viewed as more efficient rather than less committed.
How workers frame their AI use also matters. Employees who positioned AI as a tool that benefits teams or clients received more favorable evaluations than those who described it primarily as a personal productivity aid, although both groups still faced some level of bias compared with workers who did not mention AI at all.
The New Challenge for Employers
The findings suggest that AI adoption is no longer the primary hurdle for organizations. Instead, employers may need to address the cultural barriers that discourage employees from being transparent about how they work.
If workers believe disclosing AI use will damage their reputation, organizations risk pushing AI adoption underground, making it harder to identify best practices, scale successful use cases, and manage potential risks.
As AI becomes embedded in daily work, the research suggests the next phase of adoption will depend less on technology and more on whether workplace cultures can normalize its use.
