"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. A