Insights · The Growth Coach HK
Your Team Is Using AI and Not Telling You — What That Silence Signals
11 March 2026
Introduction
In almost every organization I am working with across Hong Kong and Singapore right now, the same dynamic is playing out.
People are using AI — for emails, for analysis, for presentations, for research, for first drafts of almost everything. And a significant proportion of them are not disclosing it to their managers or leaders.
Not because they are doing anything wrong. Because they are not sure whether they should. Because the norms have not been established. Because the last time someone mentioned it, the response was ambiguous enough that discretion felt safer.
The silence is not dishonesty. It is a signal about the leadership environment.
Main Insight
When teams do not surface how they are working, it is almost always because the norms around it are unclear and the cost of getting it wrong feels higher than the benefit of being transparent.
This is a leadership information problem. The leader who does not know how their team is actually working cannot make good decisions about how to develop them, how to set appropriate expectations, or how to design work in ways that leverage AI effectively.
It is also a culture signal. Teams that hide how they work — even benignly, even from reasonable caution — have learned that disclosure carries risk. That information about working methods gets evaluated rather than explored. That the safer move is to show the output and not the process.
Neither of these is the environment most leaders think they have built. But both are common.
Common Mistakes
One mistake is assuming silence means the team is not using AI heavily. If nobody is raising it, the temptation is to conclude it is not a big factor. That conclusion is usually wrong.
Another mistake is making the first conversation about policy rather than curiosity. Announcing rules before understanding what is actually happening tends to produce compliance behavior rather than honest dialogue.
A third mistake is responding to AI disclosure with evaluation. When a team member shares that they used AI for something and the leader's response feels like a judgment call, the next person considering transparency decides against it. The culture learns quickly what disclosure produces.
Framework: Opening the Conversation
Make it safe before making it structured. The first step is a genuine, curious conversation — not a policy announcement.
Ask the right question. Not "are you using AI?" which is a compliance question that produces compliance answers. Instead: "How are you using AI in your work right now, and what is working?" That is a curiosity question that produces real information.
Establish norms together. Once you understand what is actually happening, establish shared norms about disclosure, appropriate use, and where transparency matters. Do this in conversation, not by memo.
Model openness yourself. If you use AI in your own work, say so. Leaders who are transparent about their own AI use signal that the topic is safe to discuss. Leaders who use it privately while asking about the team's use create a credibility gap.
Follow through with curiosity, not judgment. When team members disclose AI use in ways you did not expect, respond with questions. What were they trying to do? What worked? What would they do differently? That response determines whether the next disclosure is easier or harder.
Practical Lessons
The leaders getting the most useful information about AI use in their organizations are the ones who made the conversation safe before making it required.
They asked first. They listened without evaluating. They updated their own norms based on what they heard rather than imposing norms before understanding the reality.
They also discovered things they did not know. Uses of AI that were more sophisticated than expected. Places where AI was creating risk that had not been visible. Places where it was producing real gains that had not been recognized.
The information was worth having. The silence that preceded it was protecting the organization from exactly the information it needed.
Conclusion
The silence around AI use in your organization is not a technology problem. It is a leadership environment problem.
The good news is that leadership environment problems have leadership solutions. A genuine, curious conversation — one that responds to honesty with exploration rather than judgment — changes what teams feel safe to share.
Start there. The norms can follow once you understand the reality.
FAQs
Why won't my team tell me how they are using AI?
Usually because the norms are unclear and disclosure feels risky. If the team has learned that sharing information about working methods leads to evaluation rather than curiosity, they will default to showing the output and keeping the process private.
How do I establish AI norms without killing openness?
Start with a curiosity conversation before setting policy. Understand what is actually happening first. Then establish norms in dialogue with the team rather than by announcement.
What should I do if I discover my team has been using AI in ways I did not expect?
Respond with curiosity first. What were they trying to do? What worked? What concerns do you have? Evaluate the situation after understanding it, not before.
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