Shadow AI: Staffers are bringing AI tools they use at home to work: Microsoft

Microsoft, the corporation that just 13 days ago implored customers to bring their Copilot to work, has now published a report warning of the dangers of Shadow AI.

Shadow IT has plagued IT administrators for years. Employees bring their own tools into the office, whether it's a preferred device, messaging platform or an AI chatbot (like Shadow AI). These rogue users circumvent IT policies by deploying their own tech, potentially opening organizations to attacks or data leaks.

According to Microsoft 71 percent of UK employees have used unapproved consumer tools at work, and 51 percent continue to do so. Forty-nine percent use them to draft and respond to workplace communication, 40 percent for reports and presentations, and 22 percent carry out finance-related tasks with bots.

The figures tally with earlier reports concerning employees pasting information into ChatGPT, potentially putting sensitive information at risk. That report in July claimed ChatGPT was very much the tool of choice for employees. While Microsoft's research unsurprisingly extols the virtues of AI tools and the potential for productivity, Copilot wasn't namechecked.

Microsoft is encouraging customers to BYOC – Bring Your Own Copilot – into the office to sidestep companies that don't provide AI tools to employees. Got a personal Microsoft 365 subscription with Copilot? Then bring it in. In this situation, IT are expected manage the AI assistant - because they don't have enough to do already.

According to Microsoft, 32 percent of respondents are concerned about the privacy of company or customer data, yet just 29 percent are worried about IT security. Forty-one percent said they use Shadow AI tools because "it's what they're used to in their personal life."

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Sadly for Microsoft, that likely means ChatGPT. Copilot has yet to set the world alight despite Microsoft relentlessly pushing the technology onto its customers. Now it seems the long criticized practice of shadow IT is ok if it helps convince more users to climb aboard the AI hype train.

Microsoft has highlighted the risks of unmanaged AI tools in a report that ends on a bullish note for the technology. More than half of the employees in the survey are feeling optimistic about the service.

Darren Hardman, CEO, Microsoft UK & Ireland, said: "Businesses must ensure the AI tools in use are built for the workplace, not just the living room.

"The message is clear: only enterprise-grade AI delivers the functionality that employees want, wrapped in the privacy and security every organisation demands." ®