Shadow AI is any AI tool your colleagues use for work without the company knowing. Free chatbots to draft emails, online translators for client documents, apps that transcribe meetings. It is happening in almost every office, including yours.

Nobody does this to cause harm. People use these tools because they work: a reply that took twenty minutes now takes two. Reaching for AI is normal behavior from people trying to do their job well.

The problem is that it is invisible. These tools run on personal accounts and personal phones, so they never appear in any company system. Your IT team cannot protect data it never sees leaving.