As they are pressured to be more productive, a portion of UK employees are paying for generative AI tools out of their own pocket. Only around one-fifth of workers to have used the technology at work have done so with tools commissioned by their own company.

For decades now, working conditions have seen an incremental decline across the industrial spectrum. The term “burnout” – a syndrome conceptualised as resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed – has become a household term, while bosses demand more and more of their staff in terms of creativity and productivity.

These demands conversely cause staff to be far less productive, as burnout results in their capacity to work to significantly decline. The advent of artificial intelligence in the workplace was initially argued to be a force which could help offset this – with its champions arguing it could help workers fulfil repetitive parts of their workload with less energy, while freeing up more time for engaging and creative work. However, critics warned that AI’s introduction alone would not reduce this issue – and depending on how it is used, could actively exacerbate it; using it as a way to pressure staff into doing even more with less.

Almost two years after the hype began, a new report from Deloitte suggests that this may be the case for UK employees – with the surprising news that one-in-three workers who use the technology are paying for the GenAI software they are using out of their own pockets.

A 31% chunk of workers who accessed said they use GenAI tools that they personally pay for. Meanwhile only 22% use in-house GenAI tools that are either developed by their company or commissioned from third-party developers. At the same time, 48% of the UK employees who use the technology report using free publicly available GenAI tools.

That does not mean that one-third of all UK workers are paying for GenAI, to be clear. As has been mentioned in previous reports, the majority of UK residents have little to no regular contact with the technology – the weaknesses of which in producing content have been relentlessly exposed over the past 24 months of public use. However, it does show that when the technology makes its way into the workplace, it is not necessarily improving the work-life balance of employees.

Allowing for this kind of use of GenAI also opens up firms to a number of risks. Stacey Winters, Deloitte’s GenAI market lead for Europe, warned that as more people and organisations “transform the way they work and live with GenAI”, they are also becoming more “conscious of its potential and limitations”.

She concluded, “Governing the technology will be essential in helping to manage the risks involved in using GenAI for our day-to-day work. Businesses should encourage usage but in a safe and secure environment, rather than shy away from it. Effective governance and controls not only enable you to comply with regulation, but also enable creativity across your organisation in a way that aligns with your ethics and values. GenAI deployments should incorporate appropriate guardrails and be accompanied with a thorough training and development programme.”