Is Shadow AI Putting Your Job At Risk Without You Knowing

Online AI tools are proliferating at an astonishing rate. This is especially true in a high-tech state like Washington, and AI tools are rapidly becoming commonplace in the Washington workplace. But what happens when an employee uses unapproved AI tools? 

Let's call them Shadow AI. 

According to cybernews.com,
‘Cybernews conducted a survey on employees in the U.S. to figure out how they use AI tools at work. The findings were quite surprising, revealing that the vast majority of respondents used AI tools that were not approved by their employers.’ 

This study indicates that there is a lack of communication, or no communication at all between employers and employees about the use of AI tools. Does your company have an official policy on the use of AI tools? The company I work for actually does, but the study shows that many companies do not. 

If you're an employee working with AI, you need to know that using unapproved AI tools (shadow AI) can be dangerous for your company. According to IBM, using a shadow AI tool can increase the cost of a data breach by an average of $670,000 for each occurrence. 

The study came up with some key points  

First off, 59% of employees use shadow AI tools. The scary part of this statistic is that 57% of these employees claim that their managers know about their use of shadow AI tools and are OK with it. Another 16% of employees said that their direct managers just don't care. 

The next point is disturbing. 75% of employees that use Shadow AI products at work possibly share sensitive business information while using those tools. More often than not, this information includes employee data, customer data, and internal documents as well. 

Now get this, the study shows that executives and senior management are most likely to use Shadow AI products for work. Approximately 93% of these people are doing this, and these are the ones that are supposed to know better. 

Finally, this note. 

Upwards of 52% of employers actually provide approved AI tools for use by their employees. But only 33% of those employees that use those tools claim that the tools actually help them do the job fully. 

Approximately 23% Of employers have no policy regarding AI use in the workplace. With all the security issues that are out there regarding AI and AI use in the workplace, almost 1/4 of all businesses have no policy at all regarding personal AI tools. 

Shadow AI tools are insidious. They steal from you and your company without you ever knowing it. They give you no hint that they're doing it, and based on the findings in this study, management for the most part doesn't care about the risk. 

The use of shadow AI is taking off in a big way because employees are looking for tools that can help them get the job done quicker and more accurately, and apparently management is fine with that as long as they don't get caught or hacked. 

As always, when you're using software. Make sure its approved software from a vendor that you know and trust.
59% of employees use unapproved AI tools at work – most of them also share sensitive data with them | Cybernews