Shadow AI
Definition
Shadow AI is AI used inside a business without the business's knowledge or governance: personal chatbot accounts fed with company data, unapproved AI features toggled on inside sanctioned tools, and agents running under individual logins that IT and leadership cannot see.
Shadow AI is rarely malicious. It is what motivated people do when the sanctioned path is slower than the unsanctioned one. The data still leaves, though: into personal accounts, under consumer terms, with no audit trail, which makes the honest response enablement plus governance rather than prohibition.
Businesses that ban AI get shadow AI. Businesses that provide governed AI, good tools, clear access rules, and a register of what runs, get the productivity without the blind spots.
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