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Is artificial intelligence taking our jobs in a sweeping overhaul of the productive economy as we know it? It\u2019s a burning question<\/a> with no definitive answers, but some workers aren\u2019t waiting around to find out \u2014 and fighting back.<\/p>\n A new report<\/a> by the AI company Writer and research firm Workplace Intelligent found a massive portion of workers across the US, UK, and Europe are intentionally trying to sabotage their bosses\u2019 AI initiatives.<\/p>\n The firms surveyed 1,200 \u201cknowledge workers\u201d \u2014 a fluffy term for wage-earning office workers \u2014 and 1,200 business executives. It found that a whopping 29 percent of workers admitted to sabotaging their company\u2019s AI by entering proprietary info into public AI chatbots, using unapproved AI tools, or intentionally using low-quality AI output in their work without fixing it.<\/p>\n That nearly a third of all workers are actively trying to wreck their company\u2019s AI systems speaks volumes. But the concentration among Gen Z workers is particularly stunning: 44 percent of all zoomers admitted to sabotaging their in-house AI deployments.<\/p>\n Of those who reported wrecking AI initiatives, 30 percent cited AI automation as a chief concern. 28 percent claimed their in-house AI had \u201ctoo many security issues,\u201d while a telling 20 percent resented that AI added<\/a> to the daily workload. <\/p>\n C-suite executives, meanwhile, are facing the heavy burden of squeezing blood<\/a> from AI\u2019s proverbial stone. 72 percent of all surveyed execs said their company\u2019s AI strategy is causing them stress or anxiety, 32 percent of whom characterize their stress as \u201chigh\u201d or \u201ccrippling.\u201d<\/p>\n There\u2019s also a major rift between how much each group uses AI. Though only 28 percent of wage-earning employees said they used AI for over two hours a day, more than half of all executives \u2014 64 percent \u2014 said the same. Some of them live with a chatbot window open: nearly one in five executives admitted logging four or five hours a day with an AI model, while one in 25 use AI in excess of six hours a day.<\/p>\n When it comes to sabotage, the corporate report suggests that \u201corganizations can address some of these concerns by investing in higher-quality AI platforms and partners.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHowever, many of these challenges point to deeper issues in change management. Including employees in adoption efforts \u2014 and being transparent about intended AI use cases \u2014 can help ease fears about job displacement and reduce the risk of internal resistance,\u201d it continues. <\/p>\n Whether or not \u201chonesty\u201d is enough to bring the skeptics on board remains to be seen. CEOs won\u2019t<\/a> stop<\/a> squealing<\/a> about the windfall from AI automation, so it\u2019s unclear why any worker, Gen Z or otherwise, should sit back and take it. Getting automated out of a job is a catastrophic financial event<\/a> which delays homeownership, lowers lifetime earnings, and even impacts a person\u2019s chances of getting married.<\/p>\n With close to zero control over how their firms are run, workers arguably have very rational reasons to resist, especially if the AI revolution is as close as tech-happy executives claim.<\/p>\n