Shadow AI: Staffers are bringing AI tools they use at home to work, warns Microsoft
- Reference: 1760443446
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2025/10/14/microsoft_warns_of_the_dangers/
- Source link:
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.
Microsoft lets bosses spot teams that are dodging Copilot [1]READ MORE
[2]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 [3]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 – [4]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.
[5]
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."
[6]Microsoft declares bring your Copilot to work day, usurping IT authority
[7]OpenAI bans suspected Chinese accounts using ChatGPT to plan surveillance
[8]JetBrains backs open AI coding standard that could gnaw at VS Code dominance
[9]Google DeepMind minds the patch with AI flaw-fixing scheme
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.
[10]
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." ®
Get our [11]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.theregister.com/2025/10/10/microsoft_copilot_viva_insights/
[2] https://ukstories.microsoft.com/features/rise-in-shadow-ai-tools-raising-security-concerns-for-uk/
[3] https://www.theregister.com/2025/10/07/gen_ai_shadow_it_secrets/
[4] https://www.theregister.com/2025/10/01/microsoft_consumer_copilot_corporate/
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2aO5zk4ivXdVjOxp83XBizQAAAMQ&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2025/10/01/microsoft_consumer_copilot_corporate/
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2025/10/07/openai_bans_suspected_china_accounts/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2025/10/07/jetbrains_acp_vs_code/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2025/10/07/google_deepmind_patches_holes/
[10] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aO5zk4ivXdVjOxp83XBizQAAAMQ&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[11] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
I asked Copilot a technical question about AD functionality. It got the answer wrong. Sorry Microsoft... if your own AI can't even get questions about your own product right, then go to hell. Oh, and yes, other AI got it right.
Is Copilot not basically rebranded ChatGPT? Yet somehow it seems to be significantly worse. Maybe it's not, and I'm just subjectively applying to bias to my view of Copilot, but it does seem that way.
It's made by Microsoft, what do you expect...
Microsoft, the Boeing of IT... Boeing loses doors, Microsoft struggles with Windows.
AI always gives you an answer to a question ... whatever it says is internally recorded as an accurate answer.
But talking with people normally gives you an answer and says, "I think this might be what caused the problem." So you can reply "No, I didn't do that" and then you can discuss the problem, often fixing it after fully discussing everything.
Poor thing, it's probably been forced to incorporate full access to the Microsoft support forums into it's model.
A million queries 'answered' by Community Support Specialists and Independent Advisors using copy pasta with minimal heed to the question.
Inflatable dartboard
Solar-powered torch
Screen door on a submarine
Microsoft Support Forum
Concrete parachute
Ashtray on a motorbike
Ejection seat in a helicopter
Glass hammer
Poor thing, it's probably been forced to incorporate full access to the Microsoft support forums into it's model.
If that is true then the two most likely query responses you are likely to get are "have you tried switching it off and switching it back on again" and "reinstall windows".
oh, the irony ...
or not
Pressing needs
They must be really desperate: Anybody sensible would had left a little time between inciting (bring your own!) and denouncing (OMG shadow AI!).
Yes, I admit expecting Microsoft to be sensible is nonsensical
Microsoft: Bring your home "AI" into the office
Users bring in ChatGPT
Microsoft: WE DIDN'T MEAN LIKE THAT.
Don't feed other companies your corporate data, feed it through us!
Don't feed other companies your corporate data, feed it through us!
Shadow of pay
The fact that companies need to “manage” employees pasting text into chatbots just shows the sorry state of things. When hiring is driven by cost and a three-month bootcamp counts as senior experience, you end up with a workforce that needs corporate babysitting to exercise common sense. Shadow AI isn’t the threat - lack of competence is.