An employee working in pharmaceutical research as a computer engineer told Techpoint Africa how his company invested heavily in an enterprise artificial intelligence (AI) tool to assist coders on his team. Despite the company’s investment, he noticed that his colleagues weren’t using it, even though it had immensely improved his own productivity.
When he asked why, they mostly spoke about the learning curve. Many of his team members felt they didn't need the tool just because it would take too much time to learn how to use it effectively.
Ironically, AI is meant to save us time, boost productivity, and help with repetitive tasks. However, some people aren't prepared to spend the time required to master its use.
A similar sentiment appeared in a recent report by Upwork, which revealed that while 96% of executives expect AI to boost worker productivity, many employees struggle to realise this benefit, and in fact, blame AI tools for being unproductive.
As more AI tools spring up, the issues have become more than just learning new tools; another trend has emerged. Reports have shown that employees aren’t just avoiding AI, many are not comfortable admitting that they use it at all.
When I asked a small group of employees to share how they use AI, only seven out of 21 responded, and 80% of those who did requested anonymity.
So, why the secrecy?
For starters, stigma. Employees often fear that openly admitting that they use AI might affect people's perception of their work.
One question I was asked when I made a LinkedIn post about how I use AI for work as a journalist was if I thought about the implication before I did. People wanted to know if I was concerned about how my work would be perceived and also if my employer was comfortable with it.
It is then a question of if AI is doing part of the job, will it give the idea that an individual is cutting corners or dishonest?
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In other cases, it’s more about managing how others see them than it is about productivity. Consequently, the stigma that AI is possibly a shortcut undermines the hard work and expertise that goes into using it to streamline processes.
For example, people in the creative sector would use AI for tasks like content generation or refinement. However, platforms like Instagram and YouTube now prompt users to disclose if AI was involved in creating content, raising questions about originality and the human touch.
Another reason is safety concerns. A few companies, like Apple, have banned or restricted AI tools such as ChatGPT due to concerns over leaking confidential information.
Yet, a Microsoft and LinkedIn report in early 2024 showed that 78% of AI-savvy workers still use AI at work — many without the knowledge or permission of their employers. More than half of those surveyed were reluctant to admit they use it.
Meanwhile, there are also ethical concerns about using AI in the workplace.
When employees use AI without full transparency or oversight, there might be violations around intellectual property, privacy, and data security.
Companies like Apple have already shown caution, restricting certain tools to prevent accidental data leaks. There's also the issue of intellectual property. If an AI tool generates creative content or code, who owns the final product?
This leads to the matter of transparency. If the use of AI does not diminish the value of the final product, should end-users be informed that AI was part of the process?
Ultimately, employers have a role to play in encouraging the safe use of AI.
While questioning the opposition faced by AI use in the workplace, an employer at a Nigerian startup argues that most tech products and services already have AI incorporated into them; this was before ChatGPT, hundreds of other apps using GPT's API, and other generative AI tools like Gemini and Claude AI came to be.
He submits that the earlier employers come to terms with the use, the faster they can encourage safe usage. This can be accomplished by providing training, creating a clear balance between enhancing productivity and respecting ethics, encouraging transparency, and monitoring usage.
How 7 Nigerian employees make use of Generative AI in the workplace
Researcher: I use ChatGPT a lot. For research, documentation, organising my research papers, and for analysing reports. It improves my productivity by 90%. I don't spend too much time reading through long pages of paper.
I upload them and ask ChatGPT to answer me from the paper, and it streamlines my research to what I'm looking for.
I use it for typo corrections, organising links, and creating descriptions for a lot of things.
Researcher: Love AI. Love that it was created. I use AI mostly to generate images, questions, slides, and all. It makes me more productive, significantly more than when I had to first look for slide templates before making a presentation, me and my indecisive self.
It also gives me focus when I'm looking for certain information. Even if it doesn't give me exactly what I want, at least now I have an idea of the direction in which I should go. I don't use it for anything other than work. Or when I want to ask pressing questions and no one can answer. My company supports AI.
Writer: I wasn't a huge user of AI before; even while in school, it was only when I had absolutely no clue that I used it. But right now, I'd say I use AI almost every day, whether it's to confirm something I already know or search for something I have no clue about.
AI was the medium I used to understand the whole Greek mythology. I don't use it for every single thing, but when the need arises, it's such a huge help.
Software engineer: I use AI every day and have a lot of experience with it, academically in my master's programme and professionally as an engineer.
Public speaker: I have been using it to find relevant information from different sources that help me cross-reference and build a broader understanding of a topic. It also widens my understanding of particular class topics and questions given its interactive nature; which gives me various perspectives.
From interactions with other work colleagues and classmates, AI has prompted lazy research and limited brain work, thus limiting creativity, unique innovations, and ideas among young people today.
Software developer: I use ChatGPT and Gemini to come up with code I am not familiar with and also for debugging. I recently got hired by a company specialising in AI. So I think they would encourage its use.
Software engineer/student: I use AI for my coding challenges. AI for work or school makes learning more fun and gives everyone access to learn as much as they want to. My employers love the idea of AI and they often recommend it.
