Shadow AI
The use of unapproved AI tools, or personal accounts on approved ones, for work tasks with work data.
Also called
- BYOAI (bring your own AI)
- Unsanctioned AI
Kind of
- Approved tools A set of AI tools that your company has vetted and approved for work use, often only for certain data or tasks.
Often confused with
- Agent sprawl A governance problem where agents multiply without control, so no one knows which agents exist, who owns them, what they are for, or what they can access.
- Citizen developer An employee who sits outside the formal IT team and uses tools available to build software to support their team or company.
Related
- AI inventory A list of the AI systems that your company uses or builds, each with an owner, purpose, and risk level.
- Vendor training A vendor using your company's data, such as prompts and outputs, to train or improve its AI models.
How it connects
- Shadow AI use outside of Approved tools