Employees are lying about their AI skills to keep their jobs

Employees are worried about how much their knowledge on artificial intelligence could impact their career prospects, and many are over-embellishing their skills in an effort to stay ahead of the curve. 

While 60% of employees agree that AI will make them more productive at work, according to a recent survey of 1,000 working professionals from graphic design company Canva, 26% admit to sometimes exaggerating their knowledge of AI or generative AI to keep up with superiors or colleagues. While 72% of professionals said they were familiar with the term "artificial intelligence," the number dropped to 51% when asked about familiarity with "generative AI." 

"The playing field is relatively level when it comes to AI knowledge," says Cameron Adams, co-founder and chief product officer at Canva. "It underscores for anyone who is feeling lost or behind that they aren't alone — we're all navigating this new era of work and creativity." 

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For most, the urge to aggrandize their tech abilities stems from job insecurity linked to automation. Forty-one percent of professionals worry that they will fall behind in their jobs if they don't know how to leverage AI, according to Canva. Still, 85% of professionals indicated they are at least somewhat interested in improving their AI and generative AI skills and knowledge.  

"People have more on their plates with less time and fewer resources and AI technology is evolving incredibly fast, with new tools coming out every day," Adams says. "Policies and regulations are taking shape around the world, which can make following the space quite confusing. It's easy to see how learning AI might seem like an insurmountable task, and how people might feel pressure to be an expert overnight, which is an unrealistic expectation." 

Twenty-three percent  of professionals surveyed committed themselves to learning about AI over the past four to six months and are leading or actively participating in AI work conversations, while 13% have considered committing themselves to learning. Of those who have worked to improve their AI and generative AI knowledge, 44% found it fun and 35% said it boosted their confidence.  

With increased interest, employers should offer the necessary resources to learn and access to the tools that could set their teams up for success. Without them, any existing knowledge gaps will only  widen, Adams says. 

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"There are easy ways to start learning and using AI: providing access to easy-to-use tools, with directions or suggestions on how to use them, is the most important thing," he says. "Starting small and using AI for low-stakes tasks, like a meeting agenda or a lesson outline can open the door to a vast amount of learning, experimentation and confidence-building."

Adams suggests making organizational changes such as developing and communicating a clear position or policy on AI. Simply fostering a culture where employees share their AI experiences and learn from them can prevent people from feeling behind. This can be accomplished through public forums where teams share the use cases they've discovered for tools like ChatGPT and discuss them freely.

"We're in a transitional period as a society, figuring out where AI fits into our lives," Adams says. "As it becomes more commonplace, the people and companies who have embraced AI will be farther along, and will be more likely to have figured out how it can make their business stronger."