How to Detect and Control Shadow AI with CloudFuze

As organizations accelerate their adoption of AI tools to improve productivity and collaboration, employees are encouraged to align with this shift. But beneath the surface, a new challenge is quickly emerging.

Employees are signing up for AI tools and integrations without IT approval and procurement standards. These hidden tools then later convert to paid subscriptions and not only account for hidden SaaS and AI spend but also increase security and compliance risks.

If your organization is in the same stage and is facing similar shadow AI issues, this guide is for you. Here, we have discussed all the steps and strategies you can take to detect and control shadow AI with CloudFuze Manage.

Key Takeaways:

  • Shadow AI is when employees use AI apps and integrations with IT approval and procurement.
  • Hidden Shadow AI apps create security and compliance risks and spend leakages.
  • CloudFuze Manage helps IT teams detect and control Shadow AI and Shadow IT.

What is Shadow AI and How Does it Impact Organizations?

Shadow AI occurs when employees sign up for and connect AI tools and integrations to your company’s cloud suite, such as Microsoft 365, without proper IT evaluation and procurement process.

According to an UpGuard report titled “The State of Shadow AI,” over 81% of workforce use unapproved AI tools at work.

While this may seem harmless on the surface, it can create serious security and compliance violations. You don’t really know what data is going out of them. Similar to regular SaaS apps, many AI tools and integrations have access to your emails, storage drives, calendar, etc.

And in many cases, shadow AI apps and integrations, and their access just simply stay hidden in your organization long after users move to other newer tools and no longer use them.

How Does CloudFuze Manage Detect and Control Shadow AI?

CloudFuze Manage helps organizations and IT teams of all sizes detect and control shadow AI apps and integrations with a combination of a browser extension and browser activity tracking dashboard in the Manage platform.

You have a lot of AI tools coming up now. Everybody in your organization must be using them. Chat GPT, Gemini, Claude, all these browser-based copilots too. Most of this AI adoption does not go through your procurement process. We have CloudFuze Manage browser extension. By using this, we discover all the shadow IT and AI that is going on beneath the surface and behind the scenes. – Satya Pranavi Manthena, Product Manager, CloudFuze.

The browser extension tracks the browser activity of each user, and in the “Browser Activity” dashboard of CloudFuze Manage, you can see users that are accessing browser-based tools, including AI tools.

The “Pages Visited” section shows all the tools users are accessing. And based on this insight, you can take decisions to manage access of those applications. By implementing strict policies, your IT team can ensure the unsanctioned AI tools do not access company data even after employees log out or leave the organization.

With CloudFuze Manage, you can also detect and control shadow IT apps that stay hidden in your SaaS stack. The “Applications” dashboard of Manage has a section called “Shadow Application.”

There, you can check all the shadow applications (unsanctioned apps) that have remained hidden from IT visibility. You can check the scopes of all shadow IT apps, especially high and medium risk apps, and understand the kind of access they have.

Based on these insights, your IT team can either sanction specific apps through standard and secure evaluation and procurement processes or revoke their access.

Secure and Govern Your SaaS and AI Apps with CloudFuze Manage

In today’s fast-changing AI landscape, the reality is most employees sign up for SaaS and AI apps faster than IT teams can track. This not only creates security and compliance risks but also creates SaaS and AI spend leakages that are hard to track.

With CloudFuze Manage, you can be in total control by having 360° visibility over all the SaaS and AI apps users sign up for and access. Shadow AI, along with Shadow IT detection and control, should be a part of the broader governance strategy that enables secure and compliant AI adoption and usage.

Want to discuss more about SaaS and AI management and governance? We’d love to connect with you. Contact us today!

Frequently Asked Questions

How can I detect unauthorized AI tools used by employees?

You can use advanced shadow AI detection and management tools like CloudFuze Manage to detect unauthorized AI tools and integrations used by employees across the organization.

What software solutions help monitor and manage shadow AI in organizations?

CloudFuze Manage helps in monitoring and managing shadow AI in organizations of all sizes and industries. By using the tool, you can regularly identify and control shadow IT and shadow AI across your organization.

Where can I find AI governance tools to control shadow AI deployments?

You can search for CloudFuze Manage Shadow AI online to explore and learn how CloudFuze Manage solves shadow AI problems that organizations are facing as they accelerate their AI adoption efforts.

Take Control of Your SaaS Stack Today

Use CloudFuze Manage to securely manage all your SaaS apps. Manage users and licenses, optimize spending, cut unnecessary costs, identify and eliminate shadow IT, ensure compliance, and do a whole lot more!