Enterprise Account Executive

Shadow AI versus adjacent terms. * Shadow IT is any technology used without IT approval. Shadow AI is a subset, distinguished by data processing, retention and model training. * Bring your own AI (BYOAI) describes employees supplying their own AI tools. It overlaps heavily, but BYOAI can be permitted. * AI sprawl is the uncontrolled multiplication of AI tools, models and agents, sanctioned or not. * Prompt injection is an attack that hides instructions in content an AI system reads. Shadow AI widens the exposure; prompt injection is one exploit. Recent developments. In May 2026 LayerX found that 15% of employees ran an AI browser extension, nearly three-quarters requesting high or critical permissions. OneTrust and Information Security Media Group found that 65% of organisations lacked full visibility into shadow AI. In September 2026, Augmentt reported that 47% of managed service providers had faced an AI or Copilot data exposure or near miss in a client tenant over 12 months. Vendors have responded with products. Sophos made AI Defense generally available on October 13, 2026. On October 20, 2026, Axonius launched Shadow AI Discovery, with tools to inventory models, agents and MCP servers due in preview by the end of January 2027. Timeline. * November 30, 2022 - OpenAI releases ChatGPT. * January 26, 2023 - NIST publishes the AI Risk Management Framework 1.0. * April 28, 2023 - Samsung's Device eXperience division restricts generative AI after source code was uploaded to ChatGPT; reported May 2, 2023. * August 28, 2023 - OpenAI launches ChatGPT Enterprise with SSO and a no-training commitment. * December 2023 - ISO/IEC 42001 AI management system standard published. * May 8, 2024 - Microsoft and LinkedIn report 78% of AI users bring their own tools to work. * February 2, 2025 - AI Act Article 4 AI literacy obligation applies. * April 23, 2025 - Cyberhaven reports 34.8% of data put into AI tools is sensitive. * July 30, 2025 - IBM reports one in five organisations breached via shadow AI, with a $670,000 cost premium. * November 19, 2025 - Gartner forecasts shadow AI incidents at more than 40% of enterprises by 2030. * January 2026 - Netskope reports 47% of generative AI users on personal accounts, down from 78%. * July 24, 2026 - Digital Omnibus on AI (Regulation 2026/1744) published, softening Article 4. * July 29, 2026 - IBM reports shadow AI in 43% of incidents studied, average cost $5.39 million. * August 14, 2026 - Cloudflare adds MCP detection to Gateway. * October 13, 2026 - Sophos AI Defense generally available. * October 20, 2026 - Axonius launches Shadow AI Discovery. Related PPC Land coverage. * Nearly half of enterprise AI runs on personal accounts, study finds - LayerX telemetry on personal identities, AI extensions and sensitive data in prompts. * 76% of marketing pros use GenAI daily, but governance lags behind - ProGEO.ai survey flagging personal AI subscriptions among marketers as shadow AI. * Most companies run GenAI. Almost none can control it, report finds - OneTrust and ISMG study on governance gaps and shadow AI visibility. * Augmentt: 47% of MSPs faced AI or Copilot data exposure - Survey of 193 managed service providers on AI data exposure and shadow AI concerns. * Cloudflare Gateway blocks MCP calls that bypass approved portals - How Cloudflare detects shadow MCP connections on corporate networks. * Your AI chatbot may be sharing your prompts with ad networks - UC Davis study of third-party data flows from 20 chatbots. * DigiCert: 78% of firms face AI incidents, half lack governance - Survey of 1,001 IT and security leaders on AI incidents and inventories. * EU AI Act gets its first real haircut - high-risk deadlines pushed to 2027 - Provisional Omnibus deal, including changes to the AI literacy duty. * Dutch authority publishes AI literacy implementation guide - Dutch regulator's four-phase framework starting with an AI inventory. * Explaining prompt injection - PPC Land's explainer on attacks that hide instructions in content AI systems read. Summary. Who: Employees in any function, including marketers and agency staff, who use AI tools without approval; the IT, security and compliance teams who try to detect them; vendors such as IBM, Netskope, LayerX, Cyberhaven, Sophos and Axonius that measure or sell controls; and regulators enforcing the AI Act and GDPR. What: The use of AI chatbots, extensions, embedded features and agents outside an organisation's sanctioned tools and oversight, the AI-specific form of shadow IT. When: The term spread in 2023 after ChatGPT's launch and Samsung's restrictions; measured incidents rose from one in five breached organisations in IBM's 2025 report to 43% of incidents in 2026, with agent-focused detection products arriving through 2026. Where: In browsers, personal accounts, extensions and connectors on corporate devices worldwide, with regulatory consequences sharpest in the EU under the AI Act and GDPR. Why: Consumer AI tools are faster to adopt than enterprise procurement allows, and every prompt sent outside a governed account can expose client data, personal data or intellectual property to retention, training or third parties.

Axonius takes on Shadow AI, turning AI into an asset class for security and IT to finally see and govern. By GlobeNewswire October 20, 2026 New capabilities find AI applications and the agents, models, and infrastructure running across environments NEW YORK, Oct. 20, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) - Axonius, the asset intelligence platform for unified security operations and exposure management, today announced Shadow AI Discovery, AI Platforms Inventory, and AI Application Settings for the Axonius Asset Cloud. Security and IT teams can now find the AI applications, agents, models, and infrastructure running inside their environment and see how each one is configured. Axonius has spent years helping security and IT teams see and govern the assets that matter most, including cyber assets, cyber-physical assets, software assets, SaaS applications, and identities. AI is the newest and fastest-growing asset class spread across multiple asset types, and Axonius is giving security and IT teams one place to find, understand, and secure what's running in their environment. This is the next chapter in Axonius' ongoing work to deliver a complete, unified view of risk across every asset class. Gartner(R) predicts that "by 2028, an average global Fortune 500 enterprise will have over 150,000 agents in use, up from less than 15 in 2025, generating significant agent sprawl, IT complexity and management challenges." According to Gartner, "only 13% of organizations believe they have the right AI agent governance in place." Shadow AI is where the problem is most visible, so it is where Axonius is starting. A security program cannot apply policy to AI assets it has not found in its environment. Axonius has more than 1,400 bi-directional integrations and reconciles what each one reports into a single platform that catalogs what exists, how it is configured, and who owns it. AI assets arrive with the same reconciliation problem every other asset class arrived with: the endpoint vendor sees one thing, the cloud security vendor sees another, and the identity provider sees a third. Putting AI assets into existing asset context data from the Axonius Asset Cloud means security and IT teams inherit the queries, dashboards, correlations, and enforcement actions they already run, instead of buying a separate AI inventory tool and reconciling that tool against everything else in their environment. Axonius is introducing the following capabilities: * Shadow AI Discovery: Axonius now brings critical visibility into AI usage in the enterprise, including the hidden usage that can only be detected by correlating signals from multiple sources. This enables security and IT teams to instantly evaluate the status of more than 200 leading enterprise applications. Axonius' existing depth in SaaS hygiene also allows for visibility into the AI vendors' stance on data training, and the AI autonomy levels available within an application. * AI Platforms Inventory: Axonius will deepen existing bi-directional integrations into AI platforms-including Anthropic, Amazon Bedrock, OpenAI, and more-designed to uncover active models, autonomous agents, and Model Context Protocol (MCP) servers within this new ecosystem of AI assets. These integrations correlate each AI asset directly to the specific human and non-human identities (NHIs) driving them. This provides security and IT teams with total operational visibility by empowering them to establish clear ownership, enforce strict governance, and eliminate dangerous blind spots across the AI lifecycle. * AI Application Settings: Axonius will address the growing security exposure that AI is introducing with new configuration auditing capabilities. By reading settings directly from connected application adapters, security and IT teams can understand whether AI features have been activated and determine whether that usage is approved or unapproved. Continuously auditing these settings against compliance policies surfaces misconfigurations and policy drift, which empowers organizations to safely govern how corporate data interacts with third-party vendors. "Every asset class we have worked on followed the same sequence. Something new shows up in the environment, it spreads faster than security and IT teams can track it, and for a year or two the only honest answer to 'how many do we have' is a guess. That is where AI is right now," said Moshe Ben Simon, chief product officer at Axonius. "We are not claiming to govern AI today. We are claiming that you cannot govern what you have not found, and that finding things across systems is the problem we have spent nine years solving for. With the additions of Shadow AI Discovery, AI Platforms Inventory, and AI Application Settings for the Axonius Asset Cloud, we're giving security and IT teams the visibility they need to close shadow AI blind spots and govern AI with confidence." "As AI agents and models proliferate across the enterprise, security and IT teams are confronting a visibility gap that traditional asset management tools were never built to close. Organizations can't govern what they can't see," said Michelle Abraham, research vice president at IDC. "Extending asset intelligence to cover shadow AI usage, platforms, and configurations is a necessary step for any enterprise serious about managing AI risk at scale." Availability * Shadow AI Discovery is generally available to customers. * AI Platforms Inventory and AI Application Settings will be in preview by the end of January 2027. Additional Resources Gartner Disclaimer GARTNER is a trademark of Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates. About Axonius Axonius is the asset intelligence platform for unified security operations and exposure management. The Axonius Asset Cloud is the one source of truth for assets and exposures across an organization's entire environment, providing all the right context to prioritize risks and coordinate fixes. Cited as one of the fastest-growing cybersecurity startups, with accolades from CNBC, Forbes, and Fortune, Axonius supports millions of assets for leading customers across industries and around the world. Media Contact