Shadow AI is already inside your company. Here’s how to get control of it
TL;DR
Reco’s State of Agent Security 2026 report found that 80% of AI tools in its telemetry operated without IT oversight, with SMBs averaging 414 unsanctioned AI tools per 1,000 employees. IBM found shadow AI added $670K to breach costs. The article explains how companies should triage: map what each agent can reach, find who still owns it, watch for orphaned agents that outlive their creators, and prioritize agents touching customer data, code, and production systems.
Companies are discovering AI agents connected to email, customer data, and code without IT oversight. Finding them is only the beginning.
For most of the past decade, the list of software a company ran was, at least in theory, one that somebody in IT could find. Today, however, AI is making that increasingly difficult.
A marketing manager can switch on an AI feature inside software the company already pays for. A developercan connect...
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