.svg?width=93&quality=80&auto=webp&format=auto&cache=true&immutable=true&cache-control=max-age%3D31536000 "Home"){kind=logo}
.svg?width=7&quality=80&auto=webp&format=auto&cache=true&immutable=true&cache-control=max-age%3D31536000 "Top Navigation - Sign in - Icon")
Artificial intelligence (AI) has well and truly “entered the building”, crossing the threshold from an emerging technology to an everyday business tool. This happened faster than most organizations were prepared for. While executives were busy formulating their AI strategy, employees raced ahead, discovering and adopting new ways to streamline and enhance routine work without the governance to keep AI in check.
This “shadow AI ” creates an invisible cyber risk layer that can range from data exposure and hidden software vulnerabilities to compliance issues and inefficiencies caused by a lack of proper integration.
For the most part, organizations have some awareness of the problem. 69% already suspect or have evidence that employees are using unsanctioned AI agents and tools, while 90% of IT leaders are concerned about shadow AI risk.
That awareness may exist, but what security and IT teams are missing is a deep understanding of that exposure, including:
- How AI technologies are being used and by whom.
- What tasks AI is carrying out and what connections it has across the environment.
- Where risk has been introduced into the organization already.
How big is the problem?
The adoption, use, and development of AI are moving faster than governance can keep up with. New technology may appear daily, spreading organically and interfacing directly with sensitive business systems and data. In many cases, shadow AI is a much bigger and more pervasive problem than your customers suspect.
This is not just about ChatGPT
Shadow AI use goes beyond employees (and leaders) using public chatbots like ChatGPT or Gemini. Unauthorized and/or ungoverned AI can enter their organization through multiple routes:
| Category | Application of AI |
|---|---|
| Standalone AI tools | Public AI chatbots, assistants, and content generation tools |
| Non-enterprise versions of workplace AI applications | |
| AI embedded in existing software | Native OS and device assistants |
| Copilots embedded in specialist software applications | |
| AI capabilities introduced through automatic product updates or feature releases | |
| Browser and workspace tools | Third-party browser extensions |
| Workspace integrations and add-ons | |
| Email, productivity, and collaboration plugins | |
| Automation and connected AI | AI-enabled automation workflows |
| No-code/low-code AI integrations | |
| Third-party AI agents and tools connected to business applications or company data |
Adoption speed is unprecedented
AI is being embedded everywhere, meaning almost any application has the potential to introduce risk. Meanwhile, employees under pressure to deliver greater productivity will continue searching for new AI-enabled tools to help them do so.
Governance was already behind
Just one in 10,000 organizations has a CISO, leaving many without an established risk assessment program as governance competes with other operational demands. AI magnifies your customers' existing governance gaps, increasing the pace and scale of technology adoption they must oversee and exposing weaknesses where policy has been neglected.
The opportunity for partners
Organizations have spent years building processes to manage devices, applications, cloud workloads, and identities. Yet when asked a simple question such as how many AI tools they are using, many cannot answer with confidence.
This is not the first time your customers have needed support to adapt to a major technology shift. Several years ago, they were navigating cloud adoption, remote work, and the explosive rise of ransomware. AI is yet another transition. The expertise and resource advantage of MSPs and other channel specialists is in demand; customers are actively seeking guidance and enablement for their AI security.
Five questions to start the conversation
The partners who start these conversations today have an opportunity to position themselves as strategic advisors rather than technology vendors. Instead of opening with product positioning, they can lead with questions about risk:
- How is AI being used across the organization?
- What controls are in place now to protect sensitive information?
- What policies govern AI access and usage?
- How do you address security and compliance within your AI strategy?
- Can leadership confidently explain their AI risk posture?
For many customers, these questions will reveal gaps they didn't know existed. Those gaps are the opening of an essential partnership.
Visibility comes first
AI promises productivity gains, faster decision-making, and competitive advantages that organizations can't afford to ignore. Making those gains count in the long run demands adequate security to ensure they are not offset by the cost and damage of AI-enabled breaches.
Though many of your customers already have some awareness of shadow AI, they cannot secure it on their own. As a trusted partner, you must play a lead role in defending their expanding AI attack surface. The first step to take right now? Help them understand and uncover the scale of the problem within their own organization.
Sophos AI Defense provides the operational layer to make this possible, bringing AI out of the shadows so your customers can adopt and use it with confidence.
