Aussies bring their own AI to work, according to Microsoft, LinkedIn

Companies are becoming concerned about sensitive data getting in the wrong hands as Australians bring their own AI applications and tools to work.

Microsoft chief technology officer Sarah Carney.

Australians are bringing more than just their lunch to work in the era of AI, a move that’s sparking huge concern that sensitive data could be lost.

As many as 84 per cent of Australians now use generative AI at work – about 9 per cent higher than the global average – and of those, 78 per cent are bringing their own AI products on personal subscription plans.

The use of non company-approved software and applications at work – known as shadow IT – can leave companies at serious risk, especially among less tech-savvy employees.

Some are even getting caught in the process, with IT teams detecting workers have transferred data from their work computer to a personal device or sending it to their personal email, all to be used in the AI tool.

Microsoft’s local chief technology officer Sarah Carney said she’s never seen anything like it. “I’ve never seen so much Shadow IT as I have in the last 12 months,” she told The Australian.

Most office workers weren’t acting in bad faith, but people were curious about AI and many didn’t want to be left behind in the race to adopt the technology – even if their employers were slow to roll out AI for staff, Ms Carney said.

“People really want to have a go at this, they want to see how they can use it, and if their organisation isn’t providing it for them, they are going and finding their own way of accessing it,” Ms Carney said.

“I think our big concern in this is what that means for organisational security. If you’re bringing your own AI to work, and it isn’t a corporate sanctioned tool, where is that data going? How is it being secured?”

Microsoft chief technology officer Sarah Carney.

The AI figures are from Microsoft and the online jobs platform it owns, LinkedIn, which recently surveyed 31,000 office workers across 31 countries.

The survey found that about 90 per cent of Australians who used the technology saved time at work, but only about half that figure were comfortable sharing they did use AI at work.

About 47 per cent of Australians who use AI at work are reluctant to share that they’re doing so, and about 50 per cent of Australians who use it fear it makes them look replaceable to their boss.

Ms Carney said that she believed that was out of question, and the technology was still a long way away from replacing anyone.

“Personally, I don’t think that that’s the thing we’re looking to do either … We don’t want to replace people, but you want to replace tasks,” she said. “I think we keep thinking about a job holistically as opposed to the tasks that sit within it.”

Companies should be considering what tasks AI can replace when first introducing the technology at work, not who the technology could replace, as use of the technology efficiently often still required people to prompt it.

“I don’t want to have to read all my emails and I don’t want to have to attend all my meetings and watch an hour-long replay of a meeting when I can read five minutes worth of a recap,” Ms Carney said.

“We keep getting caught on this job replacement piece and actually what we should be talking about is how do we take away some of those repetitive low value tasks and replace them with something different.”

The survey also found that most office workers spent about 60 per cent of their time checking emails, attending meetings and completing administration work and just 40 per cent of their time completing creative work.

If those figures could be reversed and people had time freed up to be more creative, companies would begin to find genuine value in AI, Ms Carney said.