Shadow AI sparks new cybersecurity race

THE RAPID ADOPTION of artificial intelligence (AI) tools across workplaces is creating a new cybersecurity challenge for enterprises and opening up a growing market for startups focused on AI governance, monitoring and security.

- S SHANTHI

As employees increasingly use public AI platforms such as ChatGPT and Claude for drafting emails, analysing documents, writing code, creating presenta- tions and conducting research, companies are grappling with a phenomenon known as Shadow AI — the unauthorised use of AI tools outside approved corporate systems.

Industry experts say the trend is emerging as one of the biggest blind spots for enterprise security teams because sensitive company information can be shared with external AI models without the knowledge of employers.

According to Gartner, more than 40% of enterprises globally are expected to experience security or compliance incidents linked to unauthorised Shadow AI usage by 2030.