ReutersBoss will lose trust if you use AI at work (Representative image)
Using a Large Language Model (LLM) like ChatGPT at work to make your work faster and smoother may damage your career in the long term, psychologically speaking. A new study led by Samuel Meyers, a Ph.D. student, together with professors from Hebrew University of Jerusalem and WHU, Otto Beisheim School of Management in Germany, suggests that employees who rely on tools like ChatGPT are less trusted by their bosses.
In the research, published in the journal The Leadership Quarterly’s December 2026 edition, the researchers examined, across six studies, how employees’ use of LLMs, such as ChatGPT, influences their managers' trust and subsequent professional evaluations.
Researchers found that study participants acting as supervisors constantly penalized known AI users; bosses chose to check their work instead of trusting their efforts. Employees who completed their work without the help of AI had a 68% chance of earning their bosses' trust, and when they used AI, it came down to just 24%.
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The important finding is that supervisors were not evaluating the quality of the finished work; their trustworthiness towards an employee was purely influenced by how the finished work had been produced, with or without the help of AI.
The researchers compared AI-assisted work with work copied from another person, and found that, in a manager's eyes, there is a clear hierarchy of effort. Doing the work independently earns the highest trust, using AI sits in the middle, and copying a coworker's work, a blatant plagiarism, sits at the very bottom.
In the longer run, using AI at work may negatively impact your career goals and the chances of getting up the ladder. As per the team, lower supervisory trust can lead to poorer evaluations of employee performance, which will reduce perceptions of employees' contributions to the company and eventually kill the chances of promotion.
“AI is changing not only how we work, but also how we judge the people we work with,” senior researcher Yochanan Bigman, a senior lecturer at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem who is also part of the research, said in a news release published in phys.org.
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“An employee may use AI to produce better work more efficiently yet still lose their manager's trust simply because AI was involved,” Bigman added in the statement. “Organizations need to recognize that adopting AI is not just a technological challenge - it is also a psychological and managerial one.”
One of the promising findings of the research was that when an organization explicitly encouraged employees to use AI, the bosses' trust in employees remained impacted, or the trust score was no longer statistically significant.
In contrast, if a company forbids the use of AI, or simply draws a blurry line about using LLMs in the workplace, managers are less likely to trust employees who use AI tools.
Unless companies clearly support AI use to improve productivity, employees are likely to risk negative judgments from their bosses if they adopt the technology, researchers concluded.
And with faded trust, some employees might conceal their AI use, researchers said. “Organizations will need to invest in efforts that grapple with ‘shadow AI,’ ” researchers wrote in their paper.
“As subordinates understand that their work speed and quality may improve due to (AI) use, but that their supervisors will trust them less and evaluate them negatively if they do so, they may continue to use (AI) but without disclosing their use,” the team added.
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Companies will be in a better position to build trust between bosses and subordinate employees if their AI policy is clear, the researchers suggest. Managers also need to be trained not to penalize or lose trust in someone if they are using AI for better output.
“We find that setting no policy leads to similar trust penalties as when the use of these technologies is actively banned,” the researchers wrote. “However, by late 2025, most companies still did not have a dedicated AI policy,” they added.
“It seems unlikely that all of these organizations do not want their employees to use (AI),” the researchers continued. “Yet, our findings indicate that their no-policy approach may diminish trust relationships within their workforce when workers actually do use such tools.”
In the research, published in the journal The Leadership Quarterly’s December 2026 edition, the researchers examined, across six studies, how employees’ use of LLMs, such as ChatGPT, influences their managers' trust and subsequent professional evaluations.
Boss will lose trust if you use AI at work
Researchers found that study participants acting as supervisors constantly penalized known AI users; bosses chose to check their work instead of trusting their efforts. Employees who completed their work without the help of AI had a 68% chance of earning their bosses' trust, and when they used AI, it came down to just 24%.
Also Read: First known specialized fruit-eating dinosaur named ‘Hell Chicken’ that chewed like a parrot
The important finding is that supervisors were not evaluating the quality of the finished work; their trustworthiness towards an employee was purely influenced by how the finished work had been produced, with or without the help of AI.
Independent vs AI-assisted vs copying coworker’s work
The researchers compared AI-assisted work with work copied from another person, and found that, in a manager's eyes, there is a clear hierarchy of effort. Doing the work independently earns the highest trust, using AI sits in the middle, and copying a coworker's work, a blatant plagiarism, sits at the very bottom.
In the longer run, using AI at work may negatively impact your career goals and the chances of getting up the ladder. As per the team, lower supervisory trust can lead to poorer evaluations of employee performance, which will reduce perceptions of employees' contributions to the company and eventually kill the chances of promotion.
AI-assisted work can give better results, but managers don't believe so
“AI is changing not only how we work, but also how we judge the people we work with,” senior researcher Yochanan Bigman, a senior lecturer at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem who is also part of the research, said in a news release published in phys.org.
Also Read: ‘Life goes on’: Scientists describe how ‘zombie’ bacteria keep pumping DNA after death
“An employee may use AI to produce better work more efficiently yet still lose their manager's trust simply because AI was involved,” Bigman added in the statement. “Organizations need to recognize that adopting AI is not just a technological challenge - it is also a psychological and managerial one.”
Picture changes when a company encourages the use of AI or at least has a guideline
One of the promising findings of the research was that when an organization explicitly encouraged employees to use AI, the bosses' trust in employees remained impacted, or the trust score was no longer statistically significant.
In contrast, if a company forbids the use of AI, or simply draws a blurry line about using LLMs in the workplace, managers are less likely to trust employees who use AI tools.
Unless companies clearly support AI use to improve productivity, employees are likely to risk negative judgments from their bosses if they adopt the technology, researchers concluded.
And with faded trust, some employees might conceal their AI use, researchers said. “Organizations will need to invest in efforts that grapple with ‘shadow AI,’ ” researchers wrote in their paper.
“As subordinates understand that their work speed and quality may improve due to (AI) use, but that their supervisors will trust them less and evaluate them negatively if they do so, they may continue to use (AI) but without disclosing their use,” the team added.
Also Read: ‘Laughter is contagious’: Orangutans, the least social of all great apes, value food rewards more when in a good mood, study finds
The researchers' suggestion to employers and bosses
Companies will be in a better position to build trust between bosses and subordinate employees if their AI policy is clear, the researchers suggest. Managers also need to be trained not to penalize or lose trust in someone if they are using AI for better output.
“We find that setting no policy leads to similar trust penalties as when the use of these technologies is actively banned,” the researchers wrote. “However, by late 2025, most companies still did not have a dedicated AI policy,” they added.
“It seems unlikely that all of these organizations do not want their employees to use (AI),” the researchers continued. “Yet, our findings indicate that their no-policy approach may diminish trust relationships within their workforce when workers actually do use such tools.”
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