A majority of office professionals (72%) believe they understand how to use AI for their job better than the team responsible for managing AI at their company. While it’s encouraging to see employees embrace AI with such confidence, organizations will want to ensure they are providing the tools, guidance, and safeguards needed to help employees use AI safely. 

This is the central finding of our 2026 Shadow AI Survey, conducted by Wakefield Research among 1,250 office professionals who work at companies with a minimum annual revenue of $500 million, in non-IT and technology roles. AI adoption in the workplace is outpacing the policies designed to govern it, increasing the risk of widespread unsanctioned or unmonitored use of AI, commonly referred to as “shadow AI.” 

The data shows a workforce that believes strongly in the benefits of AI, with many willing to ignore the rules to use it. Two-thirds (66%) of office professionals have used AI tools at work despite believing they were not permitted under company policy, and many are feeding sensitive business data into public models in the process.

In this article, we explore how employees are bringing AI into the workplace, why they’re willing to bypass formal rules to do so, and what it means for organizations trying to stay ahead of it.

Personal success with AI is a precursor to office use

Outside of work, nearly all users of AI tools (96%) say the technology has helped them in at least small ways, while nearly a quarter (24%) describe it as transformational. In the US, that figure rises to 29%.

Among workers who use AI for their job responsibilities, 89% first adopted the technology outside of work before bringing it into the office. Workers who use AI at home often become power users in the office: 67% of workers who regularly use AI on the job have brought multiple personal AI tools into their professional workflow after first using them personally, compared to 47% of employees who use AI at work only occasionally or less often.

Having seen AI’s value firsthand in their personal lives, these employees appear more eager to see how it helps them at work. The biggest driver was seeing clear opportunities to work more efficiently (45%), followed by growing workplace acceptance of AI (43%). Others adopted it after a role change that made AI relevant to them (40%) or after their organization formally introduced or approved AI tools (40%).

Regardless of how it began, those using AI for work find themselves using it more often on the job (79%) than outside of work (21%). The workplace has become the primary driver of ongoing AI use, and employees who see clear value in AI are increasingly willing to use it in ways that may violate company policies. 

Many employees are entering sensitive data into public models

The question of whether employees are adhering to AI policies matters because of the type of information they’re feeding into public models.

43% have entered work-related correspondence into public AI tools such as ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini that aren’t part of their company’s internal systems. In the UK and Japan, that figure rises to 51% and 50%, respectively.

Even more concerning, more than a third (34%) have entered customer data or information into public AI tools. Another 31% have input financial information or disclosed confidential company documents or strategies.

This issue is more common in smaller companies with fewer than 1,500 employees, where 40% of workers have entered customer data or information into public AI models, compared to 27% in larger organizations.

Shadow AI is widespread, and there are several reasons for it

Some employees, frustrated by policies that feel outmoded, are simply ignoring them and concealing their use of AI. 

Two-thirds (66%) of workers who have used AI say they did so even though they believed it was not permitted under company policy, rising to 72% in organizations with 1,500 or more employees.

When asked whether they’d disclose their use of AI or stay quiet to avoid being told it’s not allowed, 39% of survey respondents said they would rather use AI without telling anyone. That reluctance is stronger in larger organizations, rising to 47% at companies with $1B+ in revenue and 46% at firms with 1,500+ employees. 

But knowingly violating company policy isn’t the only reason workers are concealing their AI use. A third of employees who use AI in performing a work-related task (33%) say they would hide it to avoid scrutiny from managers or leadership. Another 30% would conceal their use due to restrictive company policies or fear of peer judgment, while 29% are unsure whether their use of AI is permitted at all. In contrast, a similar share (29%) say they would not hide their use of AI.

As for consequences, more than half (53%) of employees who used AI outside of company policies received informal feedback or guidance, while 48% faced formal consequences, such as warnings or disciplinary action. In some regions, the consequences stem from peers: for example, in Japan, a worker seeking to engage in this behavior is more likely to face pushback from colleagues (47%) than globally (28%).

Inconsistent policies are an issue

One reason employees may feel less obligated to follow AI rules is the perception that company policies are inconsistently applied. While 86% believe their company has formal AI policies in place, more than four-fifths (81%) believe those rules are applied differently to leadership than to the rest of the workforce.

This perception is especially strong in larger companies (85% by both revenue and headcount), and is also more common among mid-level managers and below (85%) than among senior leaders (78%).

What this means for operations

The goal for any executive today should not be to slow down AI adoption, but to redirect that energy into proven platforms that offer governance and automation at scale. Just as importantly, understanding where and why employees turn to unsanctioned tools can help leaders identify gaps in approved solutions and better align AI initiatives with how work actually gets done.

Read the full 2026 PagerDuty Shadow AI Survey to explore all the findings.

The PagerDuty Shadow AI Survey was conducted by Wakefield Research among 1,250 office professionals working at companies with a minimum annual revenue of $500 million, excluding IT and technology roles, across Australia, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States, between April 9 and April 20, 2026.