Is Your Team Using Shadow AI?

In 2026, the greatest risk to your company isn’t the AI you know about but the AI you don’t.

Recent 2026 industry reports indicate that approximately 78% of office workers now use personal AI accounts to complete their tasks. When employees use unauthorized tools, your company is practicing Shadow AI.

This creates a significant Legal Liability. Without a formal governance framework, your proprietary corporate data may be used to train public models. Under the EU AI Act, this “Data Leakage” can lead to massive financial penalties.

How to move from Shadow AI to Governed AI:

>Conduct an AI Audit: Identify every AI browser extension and personal account currently used by your staff. You cannot manage what you cannot see.

>Establish a Risk Ledger: You must document what data is entering which model. This is now a mandatory requirement for corporate insurance and venture capital investment.

>Implement Policy-as-Code: Deploy software that automatically detects and blocks sensitive data (such as customer IDs or trade secrets) before it is sent to external AI servers.

The Commercial Reality: You do not need to ban AI to stay safe. You simply need to ensure all AI usage is Traceable and Authorized.

“We didn’t know my team was using that tool” is no longer a valid legal defense. Its your responsibility to govern AI in your organization.

Is your organization currently tracking its AI Inventory, or are you operating in the dark?

Centralink helps organizations in AI transformation and governing AI.

Reach out via Info@Centralink.nl for a free consulting session.