InsightsCopilot and AI

Shadow IT and shadow AI: When employees choose their own tools

Employees who adopt their own apps and AI tools usually do it to work better. But it can create risk for your business that no one has visibility into.

· 2 min read

What is shadow IT?

Shadow IT refers to the tools and services employees start using without IT's knowledge: file-sharing services, project tools, browser extensions – and, increasingly, AI tools. Shadow AI is the newest and fastest-growing example.

Why it's a problem

When someone pastes business data into a free AI tool, it's unclear where that data ends up and whether it's used to train models. Customer information, contracts, and personal data can end up in the wrong hands without anyone noticing.

Bans don't work well

Experience shows that bans only push usage under the radar. What works is offering good, approved alternatives – and making them easy to use correctly. Security tools can also give you visibility into which cloud services are actually in use.

What we recommend

  • Identify which cloud services and AI tools are in use
  • Offer an approved AI tool with a work account
  • Set simple rules for what must not be pasted into AI tools
  • Monitor new services as they're adopted

How we can help

AICopilot, Copilot Studio, and Microsoft Foundry.Microsoft 365The modern workplace – set up right.

Wondering what this means for your organization? Let's talk.

Request a meeting →

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