Many enterprise employees are performing work tasks on free AI accounts. The way to fix this is withcollaboration between managers and employees on the tools to use.
June 8, 2026
As generative AI models and AI agents move from the cloud to tools that can be used on edge devices, shadow AI is growing in enterprises.
Shadow AI refers to the practice of enterprise employees using unapproved AI tools to perform their work and incurring a risk of leaking data. While it has long been a point of concern for enterprises, many have started to ban the use of tools like ChatGPT for work workflows.
However, a recent study by AI governance and data protection vendor Harmonic Security found that banning tools does not prevent enterprise employees from using their own personal AI tools at work. The vendor analyzed nearly 2 million classified AI session minutes and found that across all major AI providers with a free tier, most activity on personal accounts is business, not personal. The research found that employees are using their own free ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude accounts to write work emails, summarize meeting notes and debug code.
