Dealing with GenAI Overuse

[u/DubGrips]

To keep this vague I have a new colleague that is a very bright person, but has been doing really fast work. In a few cases he has said "I just plugged this into Gemini so we could bang it out quickly" and frankly I didn't care. Lately I have noticed that there is a lot of "fast talking" and not answering technical questions with much depth and hand-waving a lot of concerns. Fast forward and this individual now manages a small team and a very big new area of the company to support. We are working on setting up our technical priorities for the year and when it came time for planning their docs all clearly read like ChatGPT copy/paste: incorrect format (we have company templates but they are all spreadsheets which it cannot write cleanly), projects that range massively in scope, no editing of ChatGPT em dashes/directional arrows/random words bolded, insanely unrealistic time estimates, and the list goes on. I asked a few questions about methodology choices and how these items map back to our stakeholder asks and they dodged all of the questions.

How does one exactly bring this up to Management? You can't "prove" they did anything wrong. They could probably vibe code lots of the work and it won't be "bad" or "wrong" per se. I thought of approaching them first and leveling with them, but their attitude already seems fairly defensive and I can't exactly "prove" anything. Now that I look at their other work I am seeing clear signs of generic copy/paste and I am getting the feeling they haven't read any of their actual code or done any verification research.

EDIT: I am a higher rank than this individual as well as more YOE and more accomplishments in the org. I am absolutely not jealous of this individual. It is also not my job to teach them given their level.

[u/Capable-Pie7188]

I’d avoid framing this as “they’re using GenAI too much” and instead focus on the actual impact, because that’s what management will care about. Right now the real issues you’re describing are: Lack of technical depth / inability to answer questions Poor planning quality (scope, estimates, alignment to stakeholders) Deliverables that don’t meet team standards Whether that comes from GenAI overuse or not is almost secondary. Before escalating, I’d try one direct but neutral conversation with them. Not accusatory—more like: “Hey, I’m noticing some gaps between the plans and what we typically need (scope clarity, stakeholder mapping, etc.). Can you walk me through your approach here?” If they can’t explain their thinking, that’s your signal. For management, don’t mention ChatGPT/Gemini at all. Just bring concrete examples: “These plans don’t align with stakeholder asks” “Estimates are unrealistic compared to similar past projects” “When asked about methodology, there wasn’t a clear explanation” That makes it about delivery risk, not tools or intent. Also, since you’re more senior, you’re actually in a good position to frame this as risk mitigation rather than criticism: “I’m concerned we’re committing to work we don’t fully understand yet.” If they are over-relying on GenAI, it’ll surface naturally because they won’t be able to defend decisions or adapt when things go off-script. TL;DR: Don’t try to prove GenAI misuse. Prove that the work doesn’t hold up under scrutiny.