Mudcor
Shadow AI Detection: See Which AI Tools Employees Are Using
You approved ChatGPT. Does that mean employees are only using ChatGPT? Probably not.
New AI tools are easy to find and take seconds to start using. Employees can adopt writing assistants, research tools, coding assistants, document analyzers, and other AI services without IT ever seeing a request.
Shadow AI detection helps you find the AI tools employees are actually using, not just the ones you know about.
What is Shadow AI detection?
Shadow AI detection identifies AI applications being used for work without formal approval or visibility. This matters because an unknown AI tool can become an unknown destination for company data.
An employee might paste or upload:
- Client or customer information
- Contracts and internal documents
- Financial information
- Personal data
- Credentials
- Source code
- Confidential business information
Without visibility, you cannot decide whether that AI tool should be trusted with company data. It is the first step in managing shadow AI.
Why an approved AI list is not enough
An approved list tells employees which tools they should use. It does not tell you which tools they are using.
That distinction matters. AI adoption moves quickly. A tool that did not exist when your policy was written could be used by several employees today. Effective AI governance starts with actual usage.
What happens when a new AI tool is discovered?
Mudcor gives administrators visibility into the AI tools used through protected browsers.
New AI tools are unsanctioned by default. When one is discovered, an administrator can review it and decide whether to sanction it for organizational use. If you prefer a stricter posture, unsanctioned tools can be blocked until they are reviewed.
The model is simple:
Discover, then Review, then Sanction or Block.
Approved AI stays available. Unapproved AI stays under review, or blocked if you choose a stricter policy. Mudcor can also protect sensitive information when employees use sanctioned AI, giving you control over both which AI tools are used and what data can be shared with them. That second half is AI data protection.
Do small businesses need Shadow AI detection?
If employees use browsers for AI, the answer is increasingly yes. You do not need hundreds of employees to have a shadow AI problem. A 25-person accounting firm, law practice, recruitment agency, managed service provider, or consultancy can have several AI services in use before management realizes it.
You also should not need enterprise security infrastructure to find them. Mudcor is built for organizations that need straightforward AI visibility and control. Deploy the browser extension across your organization and start seeing the AI tools your team actually uses.
Know what AI is inside your organization before sensitive data finds its way into it.
See plans and pricing, or read about shadow AI and AI data protection.
Frequently asked questions
What is shadow AI detection?
Shadow AI detection identifies the AI tools employees use for work without formal approval or visibility, so administrators can see actual usage rather than relying on an approved list.
How does Mudcor detect which AI tools employees use?
Through the browser extension on protected devices. Mudcor recognizes when a known AI tool is in use and surfaces it to administrators as metadata (the tool identifier), never the page content or browsing history.
Does Mudcor block unapproved AI tools?
New tools are unsanctioned by default and visible for review. Administrators can sanction the ones they trust, and can choose to block unsanctioned tools with a stricter policy. Blocking can prevent sensitive-data submission on a tool, or block the tool at the network level.
Do small businesses need shadow AI detection?
If employees use AI in the browser, yes. Even a 25-person firm can have several unreviewed AI tools in use, and should not need enterprise infrastructure to find them.