Think Twice Before Using That Unsanctioned AI App at Work

Source Domain: www.cnet.com

You know that moment when you ask ChatGPT to polish a work email or summarize meeting notes? It may seem harmless at first, but using the wrong tool or giving it the wrong information can create a much bigger problem.

Shadow AI is what happens when people use artificial intelligence tools at work without company approval, oversight or security review. That could be ChatGPT, Gemini, an AI note-taker during a meeting, an image generator or some other tool you opened because it helped you finish something faster.

Most people aren’t trying to leak company secrets or do anything nefarious. They’re doing it because work is full of long documents, messy spreadsheets, meeting notes and wordy emails.

But the road to hell is paved with good intentions. Once you put work information into an unapproved AI tool, your company may lose control over where that information goes, how it’s stored and whether anyone can protect it.

“Once the proprietary sensitive and confidential data is out, it’s out,” Edward Wu, founder and CEO of Dropzone AI, told CNET.

That’s why shadow AI is becoming one of the trickiest workplace AI problems. It can save time, but it can also move company information to somewhere your employer can’t control it.

Let’s break down what this means for you and how to use AI at work without creating a mess for yourself or your company.

What is shadow AI?

“Ultimately, shadow AI is the usage of AI tools that have not been preapproved, reviewed and sanctioned by the IT and security team,” Wu said. It’s similar to shadow IT, which is when employees use unapproved apps or software at work.

That’s usually where the trouble starts. Not because you used AI to clean up a sentence, but because you gave it something your company would rather keep private. A quick shortcut can turn into an accidental data leak. That could be customer names, internal documents, source code or financial information.

That doesn’t mean every use of AI at work is dangerous. Asking AI to rewrite a…

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