What shadow AI is — and what it is not
Shadow IT was the unsanctioned dropbox or the private WhatsApp group. Shadow AI is the same move with language models: someone pastes a customer mail into a free chatbot, summarises a contract, or lets a tool write text without IT or leadership seeing it. The motive is usually speed, not bad intent.
The risk is not “AI itself”. It is data the organisation can no longer place: a prompt in a consumer account, a plugin that reads along, or a Copilot licence nobody explained. Without an agreement you do not know which sources the model sees or what comes back in an answer to a customer.
Copilot in Microsoft 365 versus a loose tool
Microsoft 365 Copilot in a tenant you (or your MSP) manage works with the permissions the person already has: mail, SharePoint, Teams. That is not a blank cheque — bad sharing is still bad sharing — but it is a different situation from a personal ChatGPT account. Google Workspace has its own AI features in a managed tenant; the idea is the same: start with the suite you already chose as primary cloud.
A loose browser tool can be fine for generic text. Once someone pastes customer files, staff data or non-public prices, it is no longer a handy shortcut — it is a data agreement you never made. Say that out loud, briefly, without threats.
What to decide this month
Three agreements are enough for most SMEs to start:
- which tool is approved (for example Copilot in Microsoft 365, or Gemini in Google Workspace) and which is not for company data;
- which data does not belong in a prompt: special category personal data, unsigned contracts, credentials, third-party ticket content;
- where someone parks a grey area: the ticket portal, not a public inbox — and who switches Copilot or similar licences on.
Go deeper
What Floor ICT can set as MSP
For MSP customers on Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace, Floor ICT can help with who gets which app or Copilot-like feature, with MFA beside it, and with joiner/leaver so a leaver does not keep access. We do not name security-tool vendors here. Tenant backup of AI chats is not automatically the same as endpoint backup in Elite — raise that in intake if it matters.
Academy beside policy, not ban theatre
A PDF policy nobody reads does not fix shadow AI. Short how-to (how you use Copilot in Outlook) plus awareness (what you do not paste) fits Floor ICT Academy: by invitation, with a quiz. That is not a compliance stamp and not a promise nobody will ever type a bad prompt.
GDPR and supplier questions
Generative AI becomes personal-data processing when staff put that data in a prompt. You remain controller for what your team shares. This article is not GDPR advice. If a customer asks, under NIS2 or an audit, how you use AI, it helps if the answer is factual: which tenant, which licence, which instruction — not “we do not use AI” while the browser shows otherwise.