Are you getting AI security jitters?
Until recently, most cybersecurity conversations have revolved around familiar priorities: Protect the network. Secure user identities. Keep endpoints patched and protected. Detect threats before they become incidents.
Those priorities haven’t gone away, but the rapid adoption of artificial intelligence has introduced an entirely new challenge – one that many organisations are only beginning to understand.
Employees are using ChatGPT to draft emails. Microsoft Copilot is summarising meetings. Gemini is helping staff analyse information. Claude is assisting with research and content creation. Across countless applications, AI features are quietly becoming part of everyday work. AI adoption is happening rapidly across organisations, often faster than policies, governance frameworks and security controls can keep up.
This creates enormous productivity opportunities. It also creates entirely new AI security risks.
This is no longer about the existence of AI. That’s a given. It’s now about AI changing how information moves, how decisions are made, and how attackers operate. For many organisations, that’s creating a level of uncertainty that feels uncomfortable.
If AI is giving you security jitters, you’re not alone. And frankly, you’re asking the right questions.
Security teams didn’t sign up for this
For decades, cybersecurity has largely focused on protecting systems, data, and identities. Those fundamentals still matter but there is now an added complication of AI sitting across all three.
Employees can move information into AI platforms in seconds with AI-enabled applications interacting with sensitive data, and AI agents making decisions and executing actions on behalf of users. At the same time, AI is becoming embedded inside software platforms, browsers and business applications, often without organisations explicitly deploying it.
Security teams are finding themselves responsible for governing a technology that may already be widespread across their environment. Many don’t even have visibility into what’s actually happening yet.
The visibility problem
One of the biggest risks associated with workplace AI is lack of visibility. Many organisations simply don’t know:
- Which AI tools employees are using
- What information is being shared
- Which departments are adopting AI most heavily
- Whether usage aligns with organisational policies
- Where business data is ultimately being processed
This challenge is commonly referred to as shadow AI. And it’s growing rapidly.
Employees typically aren’t trying to bypass security controls. They’re looking for ways to work more efficiently. They use AI because it saves time, improves productivity and helps them complete everyday tasks faster. Shadow AI has emerged as a significant governance and security concern because organisations often have limited visibility into its usage across the business. That’s what makes it dangerous. The intent is good, but the exposure often isn’t.
The risk most organisations don’t see
Let’s imagine a few everyday scenarios:
- A salesperson pastes a customer proposal into an AI platform to improve the wording
- A finance manager uploads budget data and asks for an executive summary
- An HR employee uses AI to rewrite a performance document
- A software developer copies sections of proprietary code into a chatbot to troubleshoot an issue
These actions seem harmless. In many cases they’re exactly what AI is designed to help with, but each example raises important AI security questions.
Where is that information stored? Who can access it? Could it be retained? Could it be used to train future models? Would the organisation even know if it happened?
Confidential information can move beyond traditional organisational boundaries in seconds if appropriate controls aren’t in place. Sensitive information may be inadvertently shared with AI platforms and organisations often lack visibility into those interactions.
3 opportunities AI gives attackers
While organisations are learning how to use AI productively, cybercriminals are doing exactly the same thing – quickly. AI is helping attackers become more effective in several ways:
More convincing phishing attacks
Traditional phishing emails often contained poor grammar, awkward phrasing and obvious warning signs. AI helps remove many of those indicators. Attackers can now generate highly polished emails tailored to specific individuals, industries or organisations. The result is more believable phishing attempts that are harder to spot.
Deepfakes are improving fast
AI-generated audio and video are becoming increasingly realistic. What once looked like science fiction is now being used in real-world scams and fraud attempts. Voice messages can be cloned. Videos can be manipulated. Executives can appear to say things they never actually said. As deepfake technology improves, trust becomes a security challenge in its own right. Deepfake-enabled attacks are emerging as a growing AI security concern as adoption accelerates.
Automated social engineering
Social engineering has always relied on understanding people. AI helps attackers scale that process. Information gathered from public sources can be analysed quickly, helping attackers develop more personalised and convincing approaches. The attacks become faster, more targeted, and increasingly difficult to distinguish from legitimate communications.
Why traditional security controls aren’t enough
Most organisations have invested heavily in protecting devices, networks and identities. Those controls remain essential, but AI introduces a different category of risk.
- A firewall can’t decide whether an employee is about to paste sensitive information into an AI chatbot
- Endpoint protection can’t determine whether AI-generated content contains inaccuracies
- Identity controls don’t always reveal how information is being used once a user is authenticated
Security programmes need to evolve. The conversation is shifting from “can users access systems?” to “what are users doing with AI once they have access?” That’s a fundamentally different governance challenge.
AI Security asks a new question
Historically, organisations asked how to stop threats getting in. Today, a growing number are asking how to safely enable AI without creating new risks. That’s a much more nuanced question.
Banning AI altogether isn’t realistic. In fact, AI usage is now desirable. The productivity benefits are real, and businesses want to use these tools and capture value from them. So an environment where AI can be used safely needs to be created. That requires a balance of visibility, governance, education and technology.
The 5 steps to good AI Security
The organisations navigating AI successfully are the ones creating clear guardrails. A strong approach typically includes:
- Visibility – Understanding which AI tools are being used across the organisation.
- Policy – Providing clear guidance around approved tools, acceptable use and data handling expectations.
- Education – Helping employees understand the security implications of AI usage.
- Governance – Maintaining oversight as AI adoption evolves.
- Technical Controls – Applying protections that help reduce the risk of sensitive information being exposed.
Together, these measures allow organisations to embrace AI while maintaining confidence in how it’s being used.
The future of cybersecurity includes AI governance
Cybersecurity teams are increasingly being asked to understand AI risk. That risk extends beyond malware, ransomware and account compromise. It now includes:
- Data exposure through AI tools
- Shadow AI usage
- Unapproved AI applications
- AI-powered phishing campaigns
- Deepfake attacks
- AI agents interacting with business systems
These challenges are adding a new layer to traditional cybersecurity concerns – a layer that isn’t going away.
How to improve your AI security
One of the biggest difficulties organisations face is simply understanding how AI is being used.
Prompt AI by SentinelOne helps address that challenge by providing visibility into AI activity across the business, identifying shadow AI usage, helping prevent sensitive information from being inadvertently shared with AI platforms, and providing guidance to employees at the point of use. It is designed to support greater visibility, governance and control over workplace AI use. Combined with clear policies, employee education and governance frameworks, Prompt AI helps organisations move from uncertainty to confidence.
AI security enables innovation safely, and the organisations that will benefit most from AI will be those that understand the risks, put the right controls in place, and embrace it with confidence.
Want to understand your organisation’s AI risk profile?
Learn how Advantage and SentinelOne Prompt AI can help you gain visibility, reduce risk and establish a stronger foundation for secure AI adoption.
