Special Report- Shadow AI: Managing the Unseen Copyright Risks in Your Organization

The Shadow Knows: Copyright Conundrums and Shadow AI

A key benefit of a well-run knowledge management system is the ability for employees to quickly and seamlessly access internal information. From parts numbers to policies, email transcriptions to CEO videos, onboarding to product documentation, a robust KM system makes work life vastly easier if these sources are readily available. But what happens when information comes from external, copyrighted sources? Or when there’s a danger that internal, proprietary information becomes externally visible? These issues pose an often-hidden danger to organizations, exacerbated by the phenomenon of shadow AI...

Shadow AI: Managing the Unseen Copyright Risks in Your Organization  

In today’s rapidly evolving digital landscape, organizations face a new challenge that combines technology adoption, information governance, and copyright compliance: Shadow AI. While business leaders work to develop formal AI governance frameworks, employees are adopting generative AI tools at unprecedented rates— often without official approval or oversight. 

This disconnect creates significant risks, particularly regarding copyright compliance throughout the AI lifecycle. This article focuses primarily on copyright implications, but organizations should also consider the numerous other risks posed by Shadow AI, including data security breaches, confidentiality violations, privacy law compliance issues, potential discriminatory outputs from biased AI, and regulatory violations across various sectors....