According to BITKOM, only just under a quarter of companies have established rules for its use

More and more employees are using artificial intelligence (AI) to simplify work processes in their jobs. According to a new survey of 604 companies with 20 or more employees conducted by the digital association BITKOM (https://www.bitkom.org), ChatGPT and similar tools are being used for this purpose

. This is widespread in eight percent of companies (2024: four percent), with isolated cases in 17 percent (2024: 13 percent). Another 17 per cent (2024: 17 per cent) are not sure, but assume that employees use private AI solutions at work.

Preventing shadow AI

“AI is becoming standard technology in many people’s everyday lives. With the spread of AI tools, for example on smartphones, there is also a growing desire to use the advantages at work,” emphasises BITKOM President Ralf Wintergerst.

However, the expert advises companies to avoid uncontrolled growth of AI and prevent the development of shadow AI. To do this, they need to establish clear rules for the use of AI and make AI technologies available to their employees.

Upheaval is taking place

According to the survey, a good quarter of companies provide their employees with access to generative AI. The figure is 23 per cent for smaller companies, 36 per cent for companies with 100 to 499 employees and 43 per cent for larger companies with 500 or more employees.

A further 17 per cent of all companies plan to provide their own AI offerings, while 30 per cent can at least imagine doing so. Nine per cent have not yet considered it, and 14 per cent rule it out entirely, according to the survey.

Just under a quarter (23 per cent) of companies have clear rules for the use of AI. A year ago, the figure was only 15 per cent. 31 per cent plan to do so (2024: 23 per cent). At the same time, 16 per cent want to continue to refrain from doing so in the future (2024: 18 per cent).