For the most part, Blake is okay with his job as a customer-benefits advisor at an insurance company.
But there's one task he's always found tedious: scrambling to find the proper medical codes when customers call to file a claim.
Blake is evaluated in part on the amount of time he spends on intake calls â the less, the better â and the code-searching typically takes two or three minutes out of a 12-minute call.
Then he discovered that Bing Chat, Microsoft's AI bot, could find the codes in seconds.
A productivity gain of 25% or more is huge at a call center â the kind that, if you told your boss about it, would win you major accolades or maybe even a raise.
Yet Blake has kept his discovery a secret.
He hasn't told a soul about it, not even his coworkers. And he's kept using Bing to do his job even after his company issued a policy barring the staff from using AI.
Bing is his secret weapon in a competitive environment â and he isn't about to give it up.
“My average handle time is one of the lowest in the company because I'm leveraging AI to accelerate my work behind their back,” says Blake, who asked me not to use his real name.
“I'm going to take advantage of it. This is a larger way of making my life more efficient.”
Since ChatGPT came out last November, corporate America employees have responded in various ways. Some have fought back against using AI, worried about their job security. Others are waiting for their companies to train them to use the new technology.
And then there are employees like Blake â early adopters who quietly use AI to do their jobs faster and better, even if it violates company policy.
Call it CheatGPT â a move that gives employees willing to bend or break the rules a hidden advantage over their tech-averse coworkers.
Those secretly using AI on the job â…