Nearly half of Gen Z workers are actively trying to ‘sabotage’ their workplace’s AI strategies — but it's backfiring

Researchers surveyed 2,400 knowledge workers across the U.S., UK and Europe and found the sabotage takes many forms. Some workers are feeding proprietary company data into unauthorized public AI tools. Others are refusing outright to use the tools mandated by their employers.

Some employees have owned up to deliberately producing low-quality work to make AI look ineffective, or changed performance reviews to skew results against the technology. And executives are taking notice, with 76% saying employee sabotage "poses a serious threat to their company's future (2)."

The goal, in many cases, is to buy time or make the case that AI isn't working.

Why Gen Z is most afraid

The fears driving the resistance are rooted in economics. Of employees who admitted to sabotage, 30% cited fear of losing their job as the primary motivator, Fortune reports (3).

That anxiety is grounded in a string of sobering forecasts from the very people building the technology.

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei told Fortune that AI could eliminate roughly half of all entry-level white-collar jobs within five years (now four), potentially pushing unemployment as high as 20% (4).

Those entry-level roles — which many Gen Z workers currently hold in finance, law, tech and consulting — are among the most exposed. Microsoft AI chief Mustafa Suleyman similarly warned this year that all white-collar work could be automated within the next 16 months (5).

And the warnings are landing with the public. A recent NBC News poll found just 26% of voters hold a positive view of AI, while 46% have a negative one (6). Notably, voters aged 18-34 registered the most negative sentiment of any demographic group, with a net favorability of minus 44.

The brutal irony: Resistance may backfire

Here's the problem with the sabotage strategy: It appears to be doing the opposite of what resisters intend.

The Writer/Workplace Intelligence report found that employees who are leaning into AI (the so-called "super-users") are pulling significantly ahead on compensation and career advancement.

These workers are reaping outsized rewards, according to Workplace Intelligence managing partner Dan Schawbel (7).

"The super-users we surveyed were around three times more likely to have received both a promotion and pay raise in the past year, compared to employees who have been slow to adopt these tools," he says. "Top AI users are also saving nearly nine hours per week using AI — 4.5 times more than the two hours a week reported by AI laggards."

That gap is translating directly into career risk for those who stubbornly remain on the other side. The report notes that 69% of executives say they're considering laying off employees who refuse to adopt AI and 77% say workers who won't develop AI proficiency will simply not be considered for promotions or leadership roles going forward (8).