AI Governance Engineer
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Shadow AI

By Updated

An AI system, model or agent running without registration, including staff use of unapproved AI tools; the failure mode that makes an inventory complete only for the honest. It is found by discovery and answered with a sanctioned route, not a ban.

Developed in
ch. 05, Pattern: Shadow-AI Discovery
ch. 12, Acceptable use of AI by staff
Chapters
ch. 05, Patterns · ch. 07, Maturity Model · ch. 12, Governance Program
Contrast with
Sanctioned AI gateway
Source
Defined by this Body of Knowledge: the section it is developed in is the source

Where it is used

2 chapters of the Body of Knowledge use the term. Each link opens the first section that does.

  • Acceptable-use policy (AUP)

    The staff-facing rules for using AI tools: which tools are approved, which data classes may go where, duties to review and disclose outputs, logging…

  • AI system

    For governance, the object the AI definition brings into scope.

Sources

No external source: the term is coined or used in a specific sense by this Body of Knowledge, and the section linked under "Developed in" is its source.

Definitions of legal terms paraphrase the cited text, which governs. Dated statements are as of .

Cite this term

García Aibar, J. (2026). Shadow AI. In AI Governance Engineering: The Thesis & Body of Knowledge (v0.5.0), Glossary. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.22956197. https://aigovernanceengineer.com/glossary/shadow-ai. CC BY 4.0

BibTeX

@misc{aige2026shadowai,
  author  = {Jorge García Aibar},
  title   = {{Shadow AI}},
  note    = {Glossary, AI Governance Engineering: The Thesis \& Body of Knowledge, version 0.5.0},
  year    = {2026},
  doi     = {10.5281/zenodo.22956197},
  url     = {https://aigovernanceengineer.com/glossary/shadow-ai}
}