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Let’s say you’re on a video call with your team when someone mentions how an AI tool helped them automate a weekly report. Another person chimes in… They used a chatbot to fix a software bug. Before long, you realize these tools are everywhere, woven into daily tasks without much oversight.
AI is quickly becoming a normal part of the workday. Your team is likely already using it to write code, draft emails, or analyze data. This rise of AI in the workplace presents both new opportunities and challenges for IT and security teams.
The common reaction is to block these tools. But what if there’s a better way? Instead of just saying “no,” you can learn to manage AI securely. A new approach treats AI agents not as forbidden apps, but as a new type of employee. Our eBook, This Is the New State of Shadow AI in 2026, offers practical frameworks for this shift. Read on for an overview of how to turn this challenge into an advantage.
What’s Happening Behind the Scenes with Shadow AI
Shadow AI refers to employees using AI tools without official approval or oversight from their IT department. This is not a small trend. Our surveys from 2025 showed that up to 81% of the global workforce uses unapproved AI tools for their daily tasks.
You might be surprised to learn that it’s not just your employees. The same surveys found that 88% of security leaders also admit to using these unapproved tools. This shows that AI is becoming essential for productivity across all levels of an organization. Trying to block it completely is not a sustainable strategy.
A New Kind of Coworker
By 2025, North American enterprises were seeing machine identities outnumber human accounts by at least 100 to 1, and in some industries that number is as high as 500 to 1.
The most effective way to manage AI is to change how you think about it. An AI agent, whether it’s a chatbot or an automated script, is essentially a user. It performs tasks, accesses data, and interacts with your systems. This means we should treat it like one.
This concept is called a non-human identity (NHI). Just like a new human employee, an NHI needs to be managed throughout its entire lifecycle. It requires a login, specific permissions, and a process for being decommissioned when it’s no longer needed. Thinking of AI in this way is the first step toward secure and effective governance.
Why Old Security Models Fail
Shadow AI introduces risks that are different from traditional shadow IT. The main problem is not just an unapproved application on the network. It’s about data. For example, credential compromise now accounts for over 75% of breaches in enterprise environments, a number projected to surpass 80% by 2026.
When an employee pastes sensitive company information into a public AI tool, you can lose control over that data instantly.
This creates several serious risks:
- Data leaks and IP loss: Your company’s private information or intellectual property could be exposed.
- Compliance issues: Using unapproved tools can violate data protection regulations like GDPR or CCPA.
- Malware and supply chain attacks: AI tools can be a gateway for malicious software to enter your network.
- Operational chaos: Without central management, you can end up with conflicting AI tools, wasted resources, and inconsistent results.
These risks point out the urgent need to update your security strategy so you can manage NHIs with the same rigor as human users.
Applying Zero Trust to AI
To secure these non-human identities, we can use a Zero Trust security model. Zero Trust assumes that no user or device should be automatically trusted, whether it’s inside or outside the network. For AI, this means applying three core principles.
- Verify explicitly: Every AI agent must prove its identity before being granted access to any resource.
- Use least privilege access: An AI tool should only have access to the specific data and systems it absolutely needs to do its job, and nothing more.
- Assume breach: Operate as if a security breach is inevitable. This means monitoring AI activity continuously for any unusual behavior.
Implementing these principles builds a secure, adaptive environment where AI can drive business value without introducing unacceptable risk.
How to Manage AI with the Right Framework
Moving from blocking AI tools to managing them requires a clear plan. A simple and effective framework involves three steps: discover, govern, and enable. This approach supports IT teams as they shift their role from enforcing restrictions to actively guiding innovation throughout the organization.
Discover
First, you need to know what AI tools are being used in your organization. You cannot manage what you cannot see. Implement tools that can scan your network for signs of AI usage. Look for things like browser extensions, specific network traffic, and authentication tokens (OAuth) linked to popular AI services.
Govern
Once you have visibility, you can start to govern AI use. This is where the concept of the non-human identity becomes crucial. Treat each AI agent as an identity. Assign it permissions and access controls just as you would for a new employee. By managing AI through your existing identity management system, you can enforce security policies consistently.
Enable
The final step is to empower your employees with safe and effective AI tools. Instead of a list of banned apps, create an “AI toolkit.” This is a curated list of approved and vetted tools for common tasks like coding, writing, or image generation. By providing good options, you encourage employees to use tools that are both powerful and secure.
Building a Secure AI Strategy
Machine identities now make up the majority of digital accounts, with annual growth rates surpassing 44%.
AI doesn’t have to be the villain. The use of these tools is a strong signal of what your employees need to be more productive. The organizations that succeed will not be the ones that block AI. They will be the ones that bring it out of the shadows and make it a secure part of their strategy.
Are you worried about the security risks of unapproved AI use in your company? To get ahead of compliance issues and protect your sensitive data, you need a clear strategy.
Download our eBook, This is the New State of Shadow AI in 2026, to get a detailed guide on how to transform shadow AI from a threat into a managed advantage.
