Most companies are requiring employees to use AI; some IT pros think that could backfire

Tired? Using AI frivolously at home. Wired Required? Using AI frivolously at work.

For many, using AI at work is no longer optional. A September 2025 AI Resume Builder survey found that more than half (58%) of 1,295 surveyed companies require a certain number of employees to use AI tools, with Microsoft and Shopify just a few of the mainstream companies following the trend.

Some companies are even trying to incentivize employees to integrate AI into their workflows by tying it to career advancement opportunities. Accenture recently made headlines after a leaked internal memo to senior staffers revealed the consulting giant has linked the use of AI to promotion eligibility. Earlier this month, The Information reported Meta’s AI-powered performance review platform will track and evaluate developers based on AI usage. Tracy Clayton, a Meta spokesperson, clarified in an email that they do not base performance reviews on AI usage, but rather the “impact generated by these tools.”

What’s all the hubbub? Joshua Brown, CISO of cybersecurity platform Spektrum Labs, told IT Brew the emphasis on AI tool usage is a side effect of corporate FOMO and business leaders wanting to make sure they get the most value out of their AI tools.

“At the very bare minimum, you want to know that you’re getting your money’s worth,” Brown said. “Well, what does that mean? It means that you want to see productivity increase in a way that offsets the money that you put in to license those [tools].”

Opening a can of worms? Mandating and even incentivizing the use of AI can come with inadvertent security risks, according to Brown, who said employees may engage in improper AI use to check the boxes for a good performance review.

“People are always going to do whatever they need to do to get their job done efficiently and so if that means using a tool that isn’t approved because security has made it too hard to do that, they’re going to do it,” Brown said. “And that’s your shadow IT.”

Roy Akerman, VP of identity security strategy at Silverfort, likes how Accenture and other companies have mandated the use of AI tools because it encourages employees to embrace approved versions of those tools; however, there are accountability issues that must be taken into consideration when it comes to security.

“Who did that? Me, the AI agents, the copilot?” Akerman said. “And who wrote that? Who reasoned that?”

These companies’ AI tool adoption may also outpace companies’ standard AI risk and security framework. “We are acting with old frameworks that assume that the players that will access things and do things will be humans,” he said.

IT pros, get in formation! Brown suggested that leaders specify the outcomes they want from employee AI use, adding that, while most employees don’t mean to cause harm, they may unintentionally do so when trying to meet vague manager demands.

“It’s not just, ‘Use more AI. It’s ‘Use more AI to do what?’” Brown said. “If you just say, ‘Look, I need to see at least 40 hours of usage a month out of you for AI tools,’ I don’t even know what that means.”

Carl Vincent, principal AI security researcher at AI security company Straiker, added that employees are IT professionals’ “greatest source of information” and that dialogue can help to remove pain points that may cause misuse of tools: “You gotta go to the humans who are already doing that work and say, ‘Where are your friction points, and how can we get you the information and the training and the knowledge of whatever’s missing?’…Then use their feedback to make decisions.”