Dive Brief:
- Shadow AI is sprawling in the enterprise as workers bring their own AI tools to work, according to ManageEngine data. The company surveyed 350 IT decision makers and 350 professionals in the U.S. and Canada for the Tuesday report.
- More than 4 in 5 tech leaders say employee AI tool adoption is outpacing the capacity of IT teams to properly vet the applications for safety, according to the report. Meanwhile, 3 in 5 workers say they’re using unsanctioned AI tools more than they were last year.
- Nearly two-thirds of decision makers identify data leakage or data exposure as the top risk surrounding shadow AI, according to the report.
Dive Insight:
Businesses have poured countless resources into deploying AI tools in the enterprise, tailoring existing services with priority use cases and baking in data privacy guardrails. Employees who bring unsanctioned, consumer-grade tools to work threaten to expose corporate data and expand cybersecurity risks.
One-third of surveyed employees say they’ve entered confidential client data into AI tools outside of approved company platforms, while 37% have plugged private company data into external AI systems.
“Shadow AI represents both the greatest governance risk and the biggest strategic opportunity in the enterprise,” said Ramprakash Ramamoorthy, director of AI research at ManageEngine, in a release. “Organizations that will thrive are those that address the security threats and reframe shadow AI as a strategic indicator of genuine business needs.”
As AI use — sanctioned or otherwise — spreads across businesses, clear and enforced governance policies remain a pending matter for nearly half of businesses. Another looming gap is training, with 60% of employees recommending more education on the risks involved in AI use.
To deter employee use of unapproved tools, businesses have pushed to make sanctioned AI platforms available quickly. Mondelēz International put Amazon Q, a generative AI-powered assistant, in the hands of its developers. Adoption spurred faster development times and eased training for new hires.
