Need to shine a light on shadow IT? Start with process

Unmanaged IT usage grows, highlighting broken IT processes and risks

News By Wayson Vannatta published 15 January 2025

(Image credit: Shutterstock / carlos castilla)

New research from The Access Group finds that 35% of UK workers admit to using generative AI without telling their managers. As employee use of AI is on the upswing, many organizations are still developing their plans for how to govern its use. Shadow AI is quickly becoming a challenge for many IT teams.

Shadow IT isn’t a new concept. The rapid evolution of SaaS technology has created technology sprawl within organizations as employees turn to tech tools to support their day-to-day work. IT is often out of the loop on technology being used within their organizations, so what options do they have to govern new technology, including AI and the risks that come with it? The answer lies in making it easier for employees to bring new technology into the organization with IT’s involvement.

Wayson Vannatta

CIO at Nintex.

The root cause of shadow IT

There are numerous reasons why employees choose to bring unauthorized technology into their organizations. In the UK, hybrid working models, easy access to cloud services, and the evolution of AI have meant shadow IT has become a major concern for businesses. Some employees may also opt to bring in their own technology because they are too busy or are concerned that they will be bothering IT if they go through the proper channels. Regardless of the reason, the root cause of shadow IT adoption is tied to inefficient and perhaps, broken processes.

But the responsibility doesn’t solely rest with employees. For example, if an employee does follow the process to submit a technology request but it is delayed or goes unnoticed by the IT team, they’re also likely to turn to shadow IT. In this scenario, not only do organizations open themselves up to security concerns around unauthorized software, but it also strains IT teams and wastes time for employees’ working requests.

The key to improving IT processes

Far too often, inefficient processes exist because they are manual and disconnected. Businesses don’t know where the breakdown is because they have no visibility into the end-to-end process, data isn’t shared between the people and systems it should be, and the user experience is riddled with challenges. This is where process automation comes into play.

That statement may seem like a given, especially in the context of IT processes. But unfortunately, many companies struggle to automate their processes, including IT processes. The reasons vary, including manual processes being intricate and difficult to automate, legacy systems lacking the integrations needed to automate, and more.

Following a simple framework for automation can help most organizations overcome these challenges:

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