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Shadow-AI & Data Exposure

The fastest-growing exposure path in the enterprise.

A discovery of the AI tools in use across your organisation, sanctioned and not, and an assessment of what sensitive data is quietly flowing into them.

Observed AI routesExposure tracing active
Sensitive dataClient materialRestrictedSource codeConfidentialCredentialsCritical
AI
Policy boundary
Observed destinationsEnterprise assistantSanctionedEmbedded copilotReviewUnknown public toolExposed
Tool identity resolvedData class attachedOwner required
The ungoverned frontier

Useful tools. Good intentions. An exposure path nobody mapped.

AI is the enterprise’s newest exfiltration path. Most have not yet looked.

Employees, acting in good faith and seeking only to work faster, paste sensitive material into public AI tools that retain, learn from, and may one day expose it. Whole categories of AI, sanctioned, embedded, and entirely unsanctioned, now touch corporate data with almost no oversight. This is the frontier, and it is wide open.

This assessment discovers the AI tools genuinely in use, distinguishes the sanctioned from the shadow, and traces what sensitive data is flowing into each. It is the one service where demand is outrunning supply most sharply, and the one where a forward-looking firm can demonstrate that it understands where the risk is going, not merely where it has been.

The AI estate

What is really in use, not merely what was approved.

AI enters through procurement, software updates, browser extensions, personal accounts, and features quietly added to systems already trusted.

Governed toolPolicy attached
Known and governed

Sanctioned

Enterprise assistant

Included in reviewLOW EXPOSURE
Expanded authorityInherited access
Known system · new authority

Embedded

AI inside business SaaS

Included in reviewCONTEXT REVIEW
Unowned toolNo owner
Unknown destination

Shadow

Public and unknown tools

Discovery requiredPRIORITY
Exposure tracing

Follow the information, not just the application.

A tool name alone says little. The material question is what entered it, under whose authority, what the provider retains, and where the output can surface.

Observed routeContext assembled
SourceClient diligence folderRestricted
ActorFinance analystVerified identity
DestinationPublic AI assistantUnsanctioned
ConsequenceProvider retention unknownPriority exposure
One route reconstructed end to endOwner and remediation required
What the assessment includes

See the tools. Trace the data. Govern the consequence.

The work is deliberately broader than a tool inventory: each discovery is connected to the information, authority, and control decision around it.

01Exposure evidence

Shadow-AI discovery

The sanctioned, embedded, and unsanctioned AI tools genuinely in use.

Assessment outputAI inventory
02Exposure evidence

Exposure tracing

What sensitive data is flowing into each, and where it could surface.

Assessment outputData-flow map
03Control direction

Guardrail guidance

Practical controls to put in place before AI becomes the newest breach path.

Assessment outputGuardrail plan
04Control direction

Forward-looking posture

A clear view of risk where it is going, not only where it has been.

Assessment outputFuture-state posture
Proportionate guardrails

Control the risky path without blocking useful AI.

The answer is not a blanket prohibition employees will route around. It is a clear operating model that matches data classes and use cases to approved tools, review points, and enforceable boundaries.

AllowApproved tool and approved informationReviewNew use case or unclear retentionRestrictSensitive data and untrusted destination
AI use policyDecision model
Data classRestrictedTool postureUnsanctionedProvider retentionUnknown
DecisionRESTRICTOffer sanctioned alternative
Control with a usable route forwardOwner assigned
Assessment method

Discovery becomes control through human judgment.

Signals reveal activity; analysts determine meaning. The final plan is grounded in how the organisation genuinely works, not a generic list of forbidden tools.

01

Observe

Discover actual AI use across browser, SaaS, network, and identity signals.

02

Trace

Follow sensitive information from its source to each AI destination.

03

Interpret

Separate legitimate workflows from material exposure and retained data.

04

Govern

Set proportionate controls without blocking useful, sanctioned adoption.

Engagement output

A defensible map of AI use, exposure, and what to do next.

Leadership receives a prioritised account of the AI estate; operators receive the routes, owners, and guardrails required to reduce exposure without freezing adoption.

Discuss your environment
AI exposure registerAnalyst validated
Tools observed47Unsanctioned08Priority routes05
Public assistant receiving client dataCriticalEmbedded copilot with broad drive accessHighUnknown browser extensionReview
Inventory · flows · guardrailsReady for remediation
Confidential assessment

Find out where your data is already going.

Before AI becomes the breach you have to explain.