Managers are already using ChatGPT and other public AI tools to script layoff conversations, performance warnings and terminations, often without a policy telling them whether that is allowed. New research from The Predictive Index finds a wide gap between how ready CEOs think their managers are for AI-era people conversations and how ready managers actually feel.
What happened
The Predictive Index surveyed 399 managers and 208 CEOs and business leaders and published the results in a press release on August 18. Seventy-two percent of managers say public AI tools are useful for preparing difficult conversations, but 44 percent admit they have entered employee names and performance details into those public platforms, a data-handling risk few organizations have addressed. Only 45 percent of organizations have a written policy on AI use in performance management. “Managers are more aware of where they need support than their leaders are, and addressing those needs starts with understanding what’s driving them,” said Anthony Belluccia, I/O psychologist at The Predictive Index.
Why it matters for the HR leader
Every manager typing a real employee’s name and review notes into a consumer AI tool is a potential data exposure event, and most companies have no policy or training in place to stop it. The absence of guidance is not neutral; managers are filling that gap on their own with whatever tool is nearest.
The original insight
Eighty percent of managers say they would rather have a framework, coaching or HR input than prepare difficult conversations alone, which reframes the AI adoption problem covered in Managers Are the Weak Link in AI Rollouts: it is not that managers resist AI, it is that HR has not given them an approved alternative to the public tools they already default to, the same training gap identified in AI’s Real Divide: Who Trains Workers, Who Doesn’t.
Source: PR Newswire
