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There is evidence that technology workers feel pressure to appear AI-savvy, but the available surveys do not show that developers mainly use AI to impress their bosses—or that most fear losing their jobs if they do not. A 2025 Pluralsight survey, reported by ITPro, found that 79% of surveyed technology workers said they pretended to know more about AI than they actually did. Separately, 95% of surveyed technology executives believed AI skills were crucial for job security. Those findings point to workplace pressure, not proof that using AI protects a job or that showing off is developers’ primary motive.
What the closest survey actually found
The most directly relevant finding comes from a Pluralsight survey reported by ITPro on April 4, 2025. ITPro said the survey covered 1,200 technology workers and executives in the United States and United Kingdom. In that survey, 79% of technology workers said they had pretended to know more about AI than they actually did. The report also said 95% of technology executives believed AI skills were crucial for job security. Read ITPro’s report.
These figures measure self-reported exaggeration of AI knowledge and executives’ beliefs about job security. They do not establish that workers used AI tools mainly to impress a boss, that the survey asked that exact question, or that AI skills guarantee continued employment. “Using AI to show off” is a plausible interpretation of pressure to look capable, but it goes beyond what this survey directly measured.
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Do developers fear losing their jobs if they do not use AI?
There is no single survey result here that establishes that most developers fear being fired for not using AI. The closest evidence measures different things in different populations. In Stack Overflow’s 2025 developer survey, 64% of respondents said AI was not a threat to their current job, down from 68% in 2024. The result came from 36,000 responses to that question; it records respondents’ perceptions, not a forecast of layoffs or an estimate of who will lose work. See Stack Overflow’s 2025 AI survey results.
That finding does not contradict the Pluralsight report. One asks technology workers whether they exaggerate their AI knowledge and asks executives about job security; the other asks developers whether AI threatens their current job. Respondent groups, questions, and years differ. A person can believe AI is not a direct threat to their job while still feeling pressure to learn it because managers or peers treat AI skills as important.
AI use is common, but common use is not the same as confidence
Separate developer surveys show widespread AI adoption, though their samples and measures should not be treated as a single estimate of all developers.
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| Source and year | Who or what was measured | Reported result |
|---|---|---|
| Stack Overflow, 2026 | 30,903 survey responses across 169 countries; self-reported use and trust | 80% of respondents said they used AI at least an hour per day; 48% said they trusted AI only when they could easily verify its output. Source |
| HackerRank, 2025 | Developers surveyed by HackerRank; adoption, code generation, and perceived productivity | 97% said they used at least one AI assistant; AI-generated code accounted for 29% of developers’ code on average; 85% said AI helped them complete projects faster. Source |
Stack Overflow’s figures are especially useful for separating routine use from unquestioning trust: frequent use can coexist with a preference to verify results. HackerRank’s figures describe its surveyed developers and respondents’ reports; they are not a universal measurement of AI use or proof that every generated line was accepted without review.
Why disclosure can feel risky
AI use can carry a social cost even where a team encourages it. In an experiment run by Atlassian’s Teamwork Lab from March 30 to April 7, 2026, 961 full-time U.S. knowledge workers evaluated identical written work. The disclosure of AI assistance varied. When participants were told AI had helped create the work, they rated the hypothetical colleague 10 times lazier and were 24 percentage points less likely to recommend that person for high-visibility projects. Read Atlassian Teamwork Lab’s account.
This was an experiment about judgments of a hypothetical colleague and written work—not observed hiring, promotion, or firing outcomes. It suggests that disclosure may trigger negative judgments in some settings; it does not tell us how often real managers penalize AI use. Atlassian Teamwork Lab head Molly Sands summarized the issue this way: “This isn’t a technology problem; it’s a social and cultural one.”
That stigma can help explain why employees might conceal assistance, but it does not prove that hiding AI use is widespread across every workplace or that fear of job loss is the main cause. The Pluralsight reporting quoted the statement, “With this stigma, workers often use… AI tools for work projects without giving credit or acknowledgement for its use.” The ellipsis is part of the reported quotation.
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For developers
- Describe what you can actually do with AI tools rather than overstating expertise. The gap between perceived competence and demonstrated skill can create avoidable risk when output needs review.
- Be ready to explain how you checked AI-generated work, especially when accuracy, security, or maintainability matters. Stack Overflow’s 2026 trust finding shows that many respondents tie confidence to whether they can verify the output.
- Follow your employer’s rules for data, code, attribution, and approved tools. The cited surveys do not establish a universal disclosure policy; workplace expectations vary.
For managers
- Make expectations explicit: which tools are approved, what work may be delegated to them, and when employees should disclose assistance.
- Evaluate the quality and accountability of the work, not just whether AI was used. Atlassian’s experiment indicates that disclosure alone can shape judgments, even when the written work is identical.
- Offer practical training and time to learn. If leaders signal that AI skills matter for job security without defining what competence means, workers may respond by performing confidence rather than building it.
Stack Overflow CEO Prashanth Chandrasekar framed the broader organizational challenge in the 2026 survey overview: “AI has the potential to reshape the entire software and product development life cycle, but realizing that potential requires a foundational change to workflows, roles, and ownership.” That is a call to clarify how work changes—not evidence that any particular employee must use AI to keep a job.
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