Issue 25 companion · Shadow AI Is Already Your Operating Model
The Shadow-to-Safe Plan
Your people are already using AI, and not always the sanctioned path. A ban does not remove demand; it relocates it somewhere darker. Every unofficial workaround is a quiet review of your official process. Read the signal, then make the safe path the easy one - in this order.
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The Signal
The Shadow-to-Safe Plan
Issue 25 companion · Shadow AI Is Already Your Operating Model
The Shadow-to-Safe Plan
Your people are already using AI, and not always the sanctioned path. A ban does not remove demand; it relocates it somewhere darker. Every unofficial workaround is a quiet review of your official process. Read the signal, then make the safe path the easy one - in this order.
You cannot govern the AI use you have made too inconvenient to admit is happening.
Nothing answered yet
1 · Observe
Watch the real use cases without punishing anyone, so people stay honest.
What you actually see people doing
2 · Provide
A sanctioned route that is genuinely easier than the unofficial one.
The easier sanctioned path
3 · Log
The patterns, to redesign the workflow around real demand, not to scold.
The patterns worth designing around
4 · Close
The risky paths, only once the safe path is truly the path of least resistance.
What you close, and when
The rule
You cannot govern the AI use you have made too inconvenient to admit. Security follows usefulness far more reliably than a sternly worded memo nobody finishes reading.
The Signal
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