Zoho Study Reveals Overwhelming Concern, Widespread Adoption of GenAI in the Workplace

Zoho Corporation, a global technology company, released the results of its "Data Privacy and Generative AI Usage" study, conducted in collaboration with CRM Essentials . Surveying 1,000 US employees working across diverse industries, company sizes, and disciplines, the study provides insight into the prevalence of Generative AI (GenAI) in the workforce; how employees use GenAI for work; employees' sentiment about GenAI; and employees' level of comfort sharing their personal data to improve the technology.

"Companies are rushing to implement generative AI without a strategic plan, foisting it on a workforce that's understandably hesitant to jump in," says Brent Leary, Partner at CRM Essentials. "Our survey meets employees where they are by demystifying their sentiment towards AI and demonstrating the best paths forward in increasing adoption of this powerful new technology."

Are Workers Using GenAI?

Adoption of frequent GenAI use remains low, even as users continue to benefit. Of those surveyed, 24% said they use GenAI on a daily basis, versus 37% who said they've never used it—with 55% of those folks saying it's because their company doesn't have a mandate in place. Of those employees who do work with GenAI, 40% claimed it has increased their productivity "significantly," with 17% saying it has become "indispensable" to them.

How Are Workers Using GenAI?

Employees are currently relying on GenAI mostly for supporting, repetitive tasks. When asked about daily use-cases for GenAI, 19.9% of surveyed employees cited finding quick answers to work-related questions; 15.3% said creating email content; 12.2% video-creation; 11.6% summarizing long business documents; 11.2% writing content; 8% editing videos; and 4.6% writing code. A majority of services used include costs, as well: 52.4% reported paying for at least one premium GenAI service, while 41.2% aren't using any; 6.4% respondents are planning to use one within the next few months.

Additionally, results showed that only a small percentage of respondents, 18%, used GenAI solely for work purposes. 32.5% used it mainly for work, 22.9% used it for both work and personal use, 16.5% used it only for personal reasons, and 10% used it primarily outside of work.

How Do Workers Feel About GenAI?

Employee sentiment towards GenAI improved significantly once they became familiar with the technology, whether required of their job or implemented as an additional tool. Of daily users surveyed, 78% believed AI will have a positive impact on their work experience, versus 13% of non-users. Additionally, 56% of daily users were comfortable sharing personal data with generative AI as compared to 12% of non-users.

Still, there remained an undercurrent of fear. When all respondents were asked for their feelings on AI in general, 46% said they believed AI was a threat to their job, and 26% said it was a "necessary evil." Additionally, 74% of respondents claimed government legislation was needed for training AI with employee data, and 75% wanted legislation to regulate IP rights for AI content creation.

Are Workers Worried About GenAI's Impact on Privacy?

Employees are conscious of privacy risks, but the data also shows that fears are fairly sparse. Asked about how their jobs would be impacted by generative AI trained on employee data, 42% of respondents said that impact would be positive, while 20% said negative—and 30% said they are comfortable sharing personal data with AI. When asked what is the most important consideration for their choice of technology, 25% claimed "convenience," over 15% who said "data privacy."

Responses from non-users demonstrated a lack of concern: 55% don't use generative AI because it wasn't necessary for their job, while 18% said it was due to privacy concerns. Those concerns broke down as: 18.6% of employees were most hesitant to share financial information with AI tools like ChatGPT; 16.8% were hesitant to share personal identification details; 12.2% said sharing location data; and 11.8% said health details.

"The survey data demonstrates that employees stand to benefit greatly from generative AI, but their hesitancy is rooted in a lack of experience more than privacy concerns. Still, it is crucial for businesses to recognize the possible dangers that come with utilizing GenAI," says Raju Vegesna, Chief Evangelist at Zoho. "Companies should adopt a holistic approach of gradually integrating the AI features while training their employees on how to use the technology safely within stringent guidelines to reduce risks and attain long-lasting success in the digital workplace era."