Shadow AI Can Be Stopped When Workers Get Better Options
TechTarget, Tuesday, August 19th, 2025
Shadow AI is harder to police than shadow IT because AI is embedded by default in everyday apps.
Shadow AI presents a harder problem than shadow IT because AI features are embedded by default in everyday applications, making unsanctioned use difficult to detect or prevent.
The article argues against prohibition-based approaches, which failed for shadow IT, in favor of providing sanctioned tools that match or beat the free alternatives on capability. Policies work better when written with concrete examples, such as approving non-sensitive work while restricting customer data and source code.
Technical controls including secure service edge, data loss prevention, and cloud access security brokers can then monitor and restrict the rest, with the goal of making the logged, sanctioned path the easiest one.