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AI & Automation

Do you know which AI tools your staff are using right now?

Most businesses do not. Employees sign up for free chatbots, browser extensions, and meeting note-takers on their own and paste in customer records, contracts, and financials. We find that shadow AI, rank the risk, and help you govern it.

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Sound familiar?

You probably need this if…

  • You have no AI policy, or one that staff have never seen
  • Meeting note-taker bots are showing up in calls with clients and partners
  • Employees mention using AI to draft emails, proposals, or reports, but you never approved a tool
  • You handle health, financial, legal, or other sensitive customer data
  • Your insurer or a customer asked which AI tools you use, and you could not answer with certainty

What shadow AI is and why it spreads

Shadow AI is any AI tool used for work without the knowledge or approval of the people responsible for technology and risk. It is the AI version of shadow IT, and it spreads faster because the tools are free, useful, and take seconds to start. A salesperson pastes a customer list into a chatbot to draft follow-ups. A manager installs a browser extension that summarizes every page they open. Someone adds a note-taker to a client meeting that records and transcribes the whole call.

None of these people are trying to cause harm. They are trying to get their work done, and AI genuinely helps. The problem is that each of those actions sends business data to a service you have not reviewed, under terms you have not read, on a personal account you cannot see or shut off. Multiply that across a team and you have real exposure with no record of where your data went.

The risks you cannot see

The first risk is data leakage. Confidential and customer information typed into public AI tools may be stored, reviewed by the provider, or used to train models, depending on the service and the account type. The second is compliance. Personal, health, or financial data processed by an unapproved tool can put you at odds with privacy rules and industry requirements such as HIPAA or the FTC Safeguards Rule.

The third is insurance. Carriers increasingly ask about AI use, and an answer you cannot back up can create problems later if you ever need to file a claim. The fourth is the absence of an audit trail. When an employee leaves, their personal AI accounts and whatever they pasted into them leave too, and you have no way to know what was shared, by whom, or when.

How the assessment works

We follow four steps. Discover: we look across your environment, including devices, browsers, sign-in records, and connected apps, to find the AI tools, extensions, and accounts in use. We pair that technical review with conversations with staff, because people will often tell you what they use once they know the goal is safer adoption rather than punishment. Those conversations also reveal why people turned to AI in the first place, which points to the approved tools worth offering.

Assess: for each tool, we look at what data it touches, how the provider handles that data, and how much risk it carries, then rank the findings. Govern: we help you approve the tools that are safe and useful, block or replace the risky ones, and roll out a clear AI use policy. Report: you receive a plain-language report you can share with leadership, auditors, and your insurer, with prioritized next steps. The report is written for decision-makers, not engineers, so it is clear what to do first and why.

What's included

What you get with Shadow AI Assessment

  • Discovery of AI apps, browser extensions, note-takers, and accounts in use
  • Data exposure review for each tool found
  • Risk ranking of findings, from approve to block
  • Recommendations for approved, safer alternatives where needed
  • Starter AI acceptable use policy tailored to your business
  • Plain-language report for leadership, auditors, and insurers
  • Prioritized action plan and optional ongoing governance
Adopt AI with guardrails

Book an AI readiness & governance consultation

Find out where AI can save your team real time — and what policies, data protections, and controls you need before you roll it out.

  1. 1We map where your team uses AI today — approved or not.
  2. 2A live demo of the platforms that fit, plus the guardrails you need.
  3. 3A clear plan: governance, setup, training, and ongoing support.
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Frequently asked questions

Is this about catching employees doing something wrong?

No. The goal is visibility and safer adoption. Most shadow AI comes from people trying to be more productive. We help you give them approved tools and clear rules so they can keep the benefits without exposing your data.

Will you block AI tools during the assessment?

Not without your approval. The assessment discovers and reports. Any blocking or policy changes happen afterward, based on decisions you make with our recommendations in hand.

We are already a managed IT client of GDS. Is this different?

It builds on the visibility we already have, but it focuses specifically on AI tools, the data flowing into them, and the policy and governance needed around them.

What happens after the assessment?

You can act on the report yourself, or we can help you build a full AI governance program and keep monitoring for new tools over time.

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