35% of security and IT leaders identify shadow AI exposure as security incidents tied to AI systems.

Nearly 50% of workers who understand their organization's AI policy knowingly violate that policy by using unapproved AI tools.

Among organizations with confirmed AI-related security incidents, Shadow AI contributed to 44% of incidents, data or model poisoning 41%, improper output handling 41%, supply chain vulnerabilities 35%, and prompt injection 34%.

48% of employees say they would continue using AI even if it were explicitly banned

62% of Gen Z employees are actively hiding their AI use at work

67% of enterprise AI usage occurs through unmanaged personal accounts on corporate devices

45% of employees find workarounds when AI tools are restricted

60% of employees say the productivity benefits of unsanctioned AI outweigh the security risks when deadlines are involved

80% of organizations report shadow AI (employees connecting AI tools without security or IT review).

Only 20% of organizations fully monitor employee use of shadow AI.

96% of companies running AI in production, using AI broadly, and operating on multi-tenant SaaS identity infrastructure face shadow AI challenges.

44% of organizations say increased cyber risk is the top "Shadow AI" risk.

95% of organizations report unauthorized AI use within their organization.

93% of organizations view unauthorized AI use as a significant risk.

Only 25% of organizations offer approved alternatives to unauthorized AI use.

Over a third of employees commonly source their own agentic AI tools when options are unavailable or restrictive.

67% percent of users are using non-corporate accounts on their corporate devices to access AI services

Shadow AI is now the third most common non-malicious insider action detected in Verizon's data loss prevention (DLP) dataset in 2025

64.5% of activity on personal and free-tier AI accounts is business use rather than personal use.

65% of organizations report challenges with shadow AI.