Bottom line: Half of enterprises lack control over AI usage, posing risks to security and data protection.
A Bitdefender report shows that approximately half of enterprises fail to track shadow AI applications. This exacerbates security risks and significantly complicates compliance requirements.
The Bitdefender report documents widespread blindness regarding uncontrolled AI deployment in enterprises. Around 50 percent of surveyed organizations lack complete visibility into AI systems running in their infrastructure – whether deployed by employees without IT approval or by business units without central governance.
For CISOs, this represents a significant control gap: unknown AI applications can transfer sensitive data to external cloud platforms without adhering to security policies or data protection guidelines. The lack of transparency not only complicates risk analysis but also hinders the implementation of security policies and compliance with regulations such as GDPR or industry-specific requirements.
The report also highlights that data sovereignty – that is, control over the location and processing of data – becomes a decisive criterion when selecting AI services. Enterprises must therefore not only inventory their existing systems but also establish policies for approved AI tools and implement technical controls (DLP, network monitoring) to prevent uncontrolled data exfiltration.
Source: www.security-insider.de · Published 8 July 2026
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