AI is letting some workers quietly slack off - until their bosses catch on

"He used AI to complete about half of his software-engineering tasks, spending the rest of his time on the clock scrolling through Reddit and watching YouTube. "I was copying and pasting all of my tasks into an AI agent such as Cursor or Claude Code, and I would let it do the work," Olsen told Business Insider. "So instead of having to work about 40 hours a week, I would work around 20 hours.""

"Right now, there is an "arbitrage opportunity" for AI-savvy workers whose managers and peers are behind the curve, Glenn Hopper, an AI consultant in Memphis, told Business Insider. "If you're using AI, you're getting polished, completed reports and spreadsheets that look incredible," he said. "If you didn't know AI did it, you would think someone took hours to create something like this.""

"About 57% of employees said they've used AI at work in non-transparent ways, according to a global survey of more than 30,000 workers conducted between November 2024 and January 2025 by KPMG and the University of Melbourne. Those hidden uses included not disclosing when they used AI tools to complete their work and passing off AI-generated work as their own, the findings show."

Many workers are quietly using AI tools to complete large portions of their tasks, allowing them to work fewer hours while remaining on payroll. Some employees copy and paste assignments into AI agents and present AI outputs as their own. Companies remain in early stages of AI deployment, producing an arbitrage opportunity for AI-savvy workers whose managers and peers lag in adoption. Surveys show widespread non-transparent AI use, with about 57% of employees reporting undisclosed use of AI and McKinsey estimating AI can automate roughly 57% of US work hours. Workers face a dilemma whether to disclose AI use or stay silent.

Read at Business Insider