Survey: 29% of Workers Admit Sabotaging Company AI Plans
Is AI sabotage a leadership failure or career suicide for resistant workers?
Above: A female exhibitor at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona on March 3. Image credit: Joan Cros/NurPhoto/Getty Images
The Facts
- A survey of 2,400 knowledge workers across the U.S., U.K. and Europe by AI firm Writer and research firm Workplace Intelligence found 29% of employees admit to sabotaging their company's AI strategy, with that figure rising to 44% among Gen Z workers.
- Sabotage takes several forms, including entering sensitive company data into unapproved public AI tools and outright refusal to use AI. Some employees have also admitted to tampering with performance metrics or deliberately producing low-quality work to make AI appear ineffective.
- Among employees who admitted to sabotage, 30% cited fear of job loss as their motivation. A separate KPMG survey found four in 10 workers share that concern, a phenomenon researchers have labeled "FOBO" — fear of becoming obsolete.
Sources Split
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The Spin
Narrative A
AI sabotage is a symptom of leadership failure. When 49% of employees are left to figure out generative AI on their own and 75% of company AI strategies are more for show than real guidance, worker pushback is the predictable result. It's vital to fix the strategy, invest in people and the resistance disappears.
Narrative B
Sabotaging AI is career suicide. Workers who resist are 60% more likely to face layoffs while AI super-users are saving nearly nine hours a week and landing promotions at 3x the rate of laggards. Fear of obsolescence is real, but the fastest path to becoming obsolete is refusing to adapt.
Metaculus Prediction
Go Deeper
© 2026 Improve the News Foundation. All rights reserved.Version 7.18.3
© 2026 Improve the News Foundation.
All rights reserved.
Version 7.18.3