Zluri Report Exposes ‘Shadow AI’ Epidemic: 80 Percent of Enterprise AI Tools Operate Unmanaged

Zluri, a Next-Gen Identity Governance and Administration platform, today released The State of AI in the Workplace 2025 Report—the industry’s first comprehensive study on enterprise AI adoption and its resulting security challenges.

Also Read: Agentless AI and Software Engineering: Automating Problem Resolution with Zero Overhead

Unlike survey-based studies, the research analyzes real workplace AI usage data across 160+ organizations and 400K+ users globally, backed by Zluri’s patented discovery engine.

Key Findings

The report shows AI has evolved from scattered experiments to essential business infrastructure, with some companies already adopting more than 100 AI apps. However, IT and security teams have visibility and control over fewer than 20% of them, leaving businesses vulnerable to data breaches and compliance failures.

Also Read: The Role of AI in Automated Dental Treatment Planning: From Diagnosis to Prosthetics

“AI adoption in enterprises is accelerating at a breakneck pace—several companies now use hundreds of AI tools, and many operate entirely outside IT’s awareness, creating what I call ‘AI sprawl.’ This sprawl introduces new risks—from data leakage via unmanaged AI agents to uncontrolled access paths—necessitating real-time visibility and unified governance across both human and non‑human identities,” said Ritish Reddy, CEO and Co-founder of Zluri.

The report features the ‘Enterprise AI Leaderboard’ showcasing the top 20 AI applications, with ChatGPT maintaining a commanding lead, as well as ‘Rising Stars’ highlighting the next 10 applications gaining traction in the workplace.

​​Organizations are strategically investing in categories that deliver immediate business value, such as AI chatbots, writing assistants, and voice recognition software. The report identifies the most widely adopted tools across major AI categories. Notably, code generation tools are being adopted beyond engineering teams. However, AI agents remain in the nascent stages of adoption. The report also dives into AI usage trends across multiple departments such as Product & Engineering, Sales & Marketing and Customer Support.

[To share your insights with us as part of editorial or sponsored content, please write to psen@itechseries.com]